


Buzz Kill

by Kirabaros



Category: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
Genre: Crime Scenes, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-20
Updated: 2020-11-04
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:14:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 39,095
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27125048
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kirabaros/pseuds/Kirabaros
Summary: A guy falls from twelve stories and it's a suicide? Grissom thinks he was electrocuted and so does Sage as they investigate the death of Roger Valenti. In the meantime new friendships are tested in emotional circumstances.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 3





	1. Chapter 1

The night was a typical one in Vegas. The casinos were alive and the streets bustling with the night life that was characteristic of that town. The Las Vegas Crime Lab was bustling with the lab techs going about their work on the active cases. The swing shift was about ready to go off and officially the night shift was about to begin. It was business as usual.

Sage Parker walked into the lab looking like she came from a business meeting. It had been court day for her. It was one of the cases she had worked on with Sara but she was the one that collected and processed the case breaker and Sara was the lead. Sara already had her day in court so now it was her turn and she felt that it went well.

Walking through the lab, Sage knew that she looked professional but the one thing that was out of place was her shoulder book bag. That bag was battered and old looking. It looked like it had been through hell and back and it literally had but Sage wouldn’t give it up for anything. The excuse she gave to her colleagues was that it was her lucky pack and in truth it was. She had it since college and it was more of a sentimental reason she held onto it.

Walking through the lab, she caught the techs going about their work. She was even surprised that Greg was hard at work doing what he was good at. Normally he kept an eye out for her and they exchanged a wave or two and continued through. Occasionally he brought her a cup of coffee from his private stash but it seemed to be more along the lines of trying to sneak one in. It seemed that he and Nick competed to get her the first cup and she taught them a lesson by walking in with a cup.

“Hey nice look,” Sara said as she walked by. “I bet you killed them.”

“Only because you set the groundwork,” Sage countered with a grin. “I think we got a slam dunk.”

“One up on the girl’s side then,” Sara replied with a grin on her face. She sobered bit and looked at Sage. The case that they had just taken to trial was a rape murder of a girl who worked at a coffee shop. They spent the case egging each other on to keep going and find the evidence they needed. “You do good work Parker. I hope you stay when your year is up.”

“Are the bets being made?” Sage raised her brow inwardly pleased by the compliment. “Cause I don’t see myself quitting anytime soon. I rather like it here in Vegas. At least I have decent competition in the field.”

“Oh you are so on when we get another case.”

“It’s always on Sara,” Sage replied with a smile. “We both need to be kept on our toes.” She started walking to head to the locker room to put away her bag.

“Always,” Sara replied as she continued in the direction she had been heading to. “See ya when we get assignments. Who knows, maybe Grissom will give you a solo.”

“Maybe,” Sage called back as she walked away. It was highly unlikely unless it was extreme circumstances since she was still the probie hire. Proficiency cases were the rule and Grissom had yet to give one for the first quarter.

The last case involved a missing UNLV student who ended up dying from being crushed by the dumpster she was trying to fish her trashcan out of. It was an interesting application of chaos theory and in the end it was what it was; it was an accident. Of course the parents didn’t see it that way and Sage really couldn’t blame them. That was the job though.

She was deep in thought that she didn’t notice that she had come close to running into her friend and partner Nick. At least until he held out his hand to stop them from colliding, “Whoa where’s the fire, Parker?”

Sage straightened up and replied, “No fire I can see Stokes.” She raised her brow in amused fashion. “Unless you’re the one running.”

“You were running into me.”

“And you should know by now that I have the invisible caution sign floating above me,” Sage replied poking fun at her habit of walking and not paying attention. “It usually goes up when I think.”

“We’re not even on a case yet and you’re already thinking?” Nick pretended to look incredulous at the whole idea of that. His eyes though betrayed the smile that was lurking under his stern gaze. “When don’t you think?”

“When do you ever?” Sage crossed her arms to return the indignant look with one of her own.

Nick couldn’t help it and started chuckling. “Do you really want to go down that route? I mean you already roped me into that bowling night and you refuse to say who else is going.”

“Come on Stokes, you know your curiosity is piqued. All part and parcel of being a CSI,” Sage teased. “Besides I play fair and told you another story.”

“Which was something you made up entirely.”

“I said that I would tell you a story about me but I didn’t say that it would be true,” Sage countered. She was chuckling at this point. “You make this so easy to win at semantics.”

“Yeah well I don’t have the lofty credentials you have Parker. Or should I call you Sparks?”

“Only if you were a lab tech. Ask day shift about what happened,” Sage countered.

Nick knew where that was going. He knew that some of the day shift techs were smitten with her, if it could be called that. He knew that Sage was nice enough to have a cup of coffee with them but it was never serious. In fact the only outings that were serious were when she went out with Greg but they never acted like people who were dating and Nick knew that it was nothing more than a friendship that was like what he had with his brothers. “Did you give one a black eye?”

“No,” Sage replied innocently, “But he did crash and burn. At least I was nice to Ecklie.”

“Whoa, Ecklie?”

Sage took in the flabbergasted expression. It looked like the night was going to be an interesting one this time around. “Yeah something about maybe doing a conference together that was coming up or some other. I said no.”

She had said it so matter of fact that it was borderline comical. Nick was surprised at that since it was Ecklie. It was constantly a war between day shift and their shift and it wasn’t easy since Ecklie and Grissom didn’t like each other. “You do realize that we’re at war now.”

“Please we already were at war,” Sage scoffed. “I told Ecklie that I wasn’t sure because I’m a probie and I didn’t make any promises. Besides I would rather avoid it for some time.”

“You really don’t like the spotlight do you?”

“Well I just went from supervisor to CSI level three probie and I actually like it.”

Nick raised his brow at that. Most everyone had heard by now that Sage Parker was well known in the field of behavioral analysis and DNA analysis and was a supervisor who ran a tight ship with her lab. It had been a big surprise when she waltzed in and was nothing like the rep. She joked but Nick did observe that the techs followed her lead a bit. She even earned a nickname from them and it wasn’t cheesy but fit her personality in his opinion. “You like being a grunt?”

“I always liked the science aspect of it. Being a supervisor… more of the not so glorious part. At Metro I was the advocate for the team and the lab as a whole when we had to do that supervisor stuff. I understand Grissom’s position quite well so…”

“That’s why occasionally you help out when Catherine can’t.”

“And finally you found the clue,” Sage teased. “Plus there is that feeling of isolation. You are expected to be the part and some people don’t change and can still act professional. Others can’t and no that is not me and my psychobabble but actual experience.”

“Hey got no problem with that.”

“Good, cause I’d hate to kick your ass before bowling night.”

“Hey that was Greg’s doing with that game night,” Nick replied making reference to the game night Greg hosted as a bit of a wind down.

“Oh I know that. I accepted that Greg wanted teams. I assumed it was the techs.” Sage looked at Nick with a straight face. They both were struggling not to laugh and in the end they both grinned. “Feels like it’s gonna be a beautiful day.”

“Don’t you mean night?”

Sage gave a playful punch to Nick’s shoulder. “Whatever smartass. I’ll catch ya in homeroom.”

“Right back at ya,” Nick replied as he started in the direction he was heading, “By the way I see what ya meant when you said you had a collar for every occasion. Looks good.”

Sage smiled and shook her head as she went to go put her book bag away in her locker. She could change out of her top and jacket since she went with black and white and she had a dark blouse in there. No need to ruin a perfectly good suit. She paused a moment to look at the picture that she taped to the door.

There was an actual picture of her and her partner Ripley and one other from Baltimore PD. There was one old family photo before she went to college and a child’s drawing. It was from little Sammy Weston. After a month or so he was doing fine and his mom left a message saying that he never stopped talking about her and the Lone Texas Ranger.

It was one of the reasons why she stayed with the job and did her best every day to do well. Sammy liked to call her on occasion and tell her what she was learning in school. His mom said that when he had a special project he did well he had to make sure that Sage Parker had to know. When she heard that she smiled.

Sage always liked kids. She had doted on her baby sister and she always seemed to make friends with her classmates’ kids in college. Not so much as an undergraduate but graduate school, there were plenty of parents in class and the group project sessions was something to look forward to. Her father said that there were two things that she could count on liking her: kids and animals. He hadn’t been proved wrong yet. Even the most ornery kid seemed willing to listen to her.

She finished putting on the button down and rolled the sleeves to her elbows. It was a dark blue shirt so it matched her court collar. She gave a slight smirk at the look the DA gave her when she showed up for court wearing a dog collar. The explanation was sweet and simple and the DA accepted that though he seemed a little nervous that the judge might say something. Everything went well since she had been in court before.

She tucked in her shirt and strapped her gun to her belt and slipped her badge in the pocket so it was visible. It was then she heard, “Oh good you’re here.”

Sage turned to see Grissom standing there as he had been waiting for her the whole time. She gave a smile and replied, “Yeah I am. Where else would I be?”

Grissom held out a slip of paper, “With me on a 419.”

“My kind of case,” Sage replied as she read the script. She frowned a bit. “Boss, dispatch called this in and it’s on county property?”

“Construction site for the new jail,” Grissom replied. “They’re claiming it was suicide but…”

“You don’t buy it,” Sage finished. She eyed Grissom suspiciously. “You want something from me don’t ya?”

Grissom gave that boyish smile that said he was caught. “Just nothing more than an evaluation,” he replied innocently. “That and maybe…”

“Ah… politics. I get it.”

“Wanna drive?”

****

The drive to the new jail was not exciting. Grissom could say that he was enjoying it immensely. The rumors about her driving were just rumors.

“Maybe you should have sat in the back. Then I could wear a little hat.”

Grissom looked at Sage but her concentration was on the road. Her lip was curled in a slight smile. “The view is fine from up here.”

“Whatever floats your boat, Boss.”

Grissom studied Sage as she finished the drive towards the scene. She had seemed to fit in with the team pretty well. He was a little concerned that she was a bit like Sara in that she was really gung ho about her work. Sage jumped into the case and wouldn’t let up but he did observe that she was astute enough to know when she needed to back down. “How was court?”

“Did pretty well. At least I thought so,” Sage replied making the turn. “I think my Southern ways were a bit daunting.” She shrugged her shoulders. “Only time will tell.”

They had arrived at the site and Sage parked the Tahoe with expert precision. She smiled a bit and said, “Well we’re here in one piece.”

“At least you drive better than Warrick.” Grissom got out and grabbed his silver field kit.

“Hey, we get along,” Sage replied as she got out and grabbed her kit. She followed Grissom as he went to look at the dead body identified as Richard Valenti. She kneeled to take a closer look while Grissom looked up.

“Man versus gravity. Man lost.”

“I think that was his point.”

Sage looked up at the foreman of the project and glanced back at the body. She didn’t touch it but observed. From first looks, the damage looked consistent with someone who sustained a high velocity fall. Of course Doc Robbins would need to confirm that in autopsy. She stood up and said, “That is if it was his point, sir.”

Grissom gave a look at Sage as she joined them. He had heard her interact in the lab and if he wanted to compare her relationship with Nick to her demeanor now, it was an extreme difference. In this case, she was being polite and he could get the reason why and it was in the appearance of Sheriff Brian Mobley.

“Grissom what are you doing here?”

Sage knew that she was to stay quiet. Grissom was the supervisor after all. She stood slightly behind him feeling a bit like a bodyguard as Grissom and the sheriff exchange words. Grissom asked, “What do you think?”

“I didn’t alert homicide.” Mobley looked at Grissom but he also took note of Sage standing there. He had approved her hire and in fact supported Grissom’s recruitment of her. “And I certainly didn’t ask for a behavioral analyst.”

Sage made a slight face at that but had her head down. The lab knew that it was scientist first and the mind games second. However, now was not the time to argue semantics. She could do that later with Nick, or Sara or even Catherine. She looked up and said nothing.

Grissom was frowning a bit at the fact that Mobley was there. He explained, “Dispatch called. The body’s on County property.”

“Well, we’re not looking at a crime here,” Mobley countered as he gestured towards the body. He looked at the foreman, “Bob explained it to me on the phone. His guy was alone up there. He jumped. This is suicide.”

“Then why are you here, Sheriff?”

It was tempting for Sage to laugh at the scene since Grissom was attempting to argue semantics this time around. She didn’t though but kept her gaze on the two men that were facing them. She could give the appearance of just being there though she knew that would do little to fool Mobley. She had been in Grissom’s position once.

“Look Roger Valenti was an unhappy guy,” Bob, the foreman was saying, “Money problems, family problems. He took the easy way out.”

“It’s a tragedy but it is not a crime,” Mobley said.

Sage raised her brow at that. Had she a good look she would have seen a similar look on Grissom’s face. It was presumptuous to assume that it was suicide. Definitely it appeared that way at face value but human behavior was much more complex. She looked up trying to visualize the fall from her point of view.

“Suicide huh? I don’t know Brian. On the day you decide to end your life… why would you go to work?” Grissom studied the sheriff as he asked the question.

Mobley looked at Grissom, “Maybe he didn’t want people to suspect things.”

Sage rolled her eyes a bit at that. She knew that Mobley was baiting her to jump in. It wasn’t like she could hide or anything since she was standing right there. She was surprised when Grissom said, “Maybe. What do you think Parker?”

Three pairs of eyes looked at her. Sage knew she was getting into something pretty deep and in the politics end if Grissom assigned her with him for the walkthrough and evidence collection. She looked up and said, “Well generally suicide is a selfish act. Jumpers with glasses remove them before leaping. In this case, coming to work to earn money for the family… doesn’t quite fit.”

It was merely something to indicate that she knew something. It was more of a flea circus performance with that. She looked down and saw that she was still being scrutinized. “There is also the possibility that someone was already up there and simply pushed him.”

“You think he was pushed?” Mobley looked at Sage with a slightly incredulous look. He was wondering if this was the Sage Parker that he had heard about.

“Well there is one way to know and that is to go up,” Sage replied as she pointed up. It had come out a bit light in her tone but one could blame it on the fact that she had a Southern accent that had a tendency to sound heavy when emotions stressed it. She adjusted it to sound serious, “It looks like suicide but in this job, you can’t assume anything until you see the evidence. In this case based upon behavior, Valenti was going in for a normal day of work. I admit that there are exceptions to the rule but I don’t think that applies… sir.”

Grissom couldn’t help but give that boyish smile. He covered for it and asked, “Well Brian, shall we take a look?”

Sage automatically picked up her case and handed Grissom’s his. They walked over to be issued hard hats since they were going to be going up and into a construction zone. One went the gloves and the little group headed into the elevator.

Sage listened as the sheriff went on about the new jail. This project was taken on to accommodate the rising prison population. She listened to the numbers and did the math in her head. She couldn’t help it since math was just a part of the realm of science.

“You look like the sheriff but you talk like the mayor,” Grissom was saying as he pulled on his gloves. “Mr. Harris, you get an extra bonus for early completion?”

“Twenty grand a day. I’m ten days ahead.”

Sage listened to every word. That was certainly a motive to get things moving back to normal but she sensed that what Grissom was getting at was the fact that Mr. Harris would need to push his guys hard to achieve that. That would certainly support suicide. It was confirmed when Grissom mentioned the dollar amounts. She said nothing but followed him out of the elevator. She could see nothing but the bare bones of construction.

“Where exactly was Valenti’s work station?”

“He had the whole floor to himself,” Mr. Harris explained. “Valenti was usually my first guy up. He would drill the holes for the safety cables. No one walks a new slab until the cables are looped around the perimeter.”

Grissom looked around and was surprised that Sage gad taken a few steps forward. Like him, she was visualizing Valenti doing his job at the area that was not cordoned off by the cables. “Terminal velocity’s 9.8 meters per second squared.”

“He would have hit the ground in under five seconds,” Sage said as she made the calculations in her head. She looked at Grissom and gave a slight shrug, “Give or take a millisecond.”

Grissom said nothing but walked towards the end of the slab where Valenti was working. He peered over to look at the fall from that height. It was then he noticed the drill dangling by its cord. He hauled it up and asked about it. He also noted something was peculiar about the drill, “This drill is shorted out. Do you think he jumped before or after he got the shock of his life?”

Upon hearing that, Sage put down her case and looked for the other end of the drill. Something was off about this. She followed the cord to where it was plugged in and inspected the unit. Normally GFCI would have prevented shock. In a lot of heavy duty tools like the drill, they have GFCI. If an electrical imbalance occurs, the GFCI trips the circuit and the tool will shut itself off.

Sage had conducted an experiment once with one of her CSIs at Metro involving GFCI. The results were interesting and ended up proving their case. She looked at the power source with her mini Mag Lite and inspected the plug before pulling it out. She had been following the conversation and was able to add, “If the third prong of the plug is compromised, then the interrupter won’t work and hence the shock of a lifetime.”

“The third prong grounds the drill,” Mr. Harris said as he came to inspect what Grissom and Sage were looking at. “Without it the interrupted is useless.”

Sage was holding the plug and inspecting it. “Thing is the prongs don’t snap off by themselves nor so easily. I’m starting to think jumping is a least likely scenario at face value.” She looked up at the sheriff and the foreman.

In fact Sage was starting to think that this was a homicide. Shearing off a grounding prong required someone working on it with a tool. That would contribute to premeditation in this case with regards to sabotaging the tool. The tool marks were interesting since it looked like a pair of plier cutters did the job. It looked like there might be a means of comparing tool marks if they found the tool. She starting tagging the tools since it would need to be inspected back at the lab.


	2. Chapter 2

Nick had been on a bit of high in terms of good spirits since he had a nice banter with Sage. It made him determined to figure out who else was going bowling with them on their next night off. Well she implied that others would be there. It could be that she set up a one on one competition. He hadn’t been able to pry anything out of her and that usually was the case. The woman was tight lipped about her surprises and secrets unless she wanted people to know about them. But he could say that she was always open about herself when she chose to let people in.

He had been thinking of ways to try and get a clue from her about bowling night on the way with Catherine to the 419 that they had been called out to. It was sort of a mental preparation for what they may find since every case was different. Some conformed to what was expected to be seen and some just took you by surprise. It really didn’t prepare him for what he found with Catherine at their crime scene as he listened to Detective O’ Reilly fill them in on the victim.

The body was Dylan Buckley, aged fourteen. He was lying on the ground and the body was very still. Automatically Nick turned on his mini light and flashed it on the body. “Was he home alone?”

O’ Reilly looked at the body for a moment before replying, “Not alone. And not his home.”

The next question would be to ask whose home it was. It was answered by O’ Reilly introducing Nick and Catherine to Dr. Leigh Sapien. She was the kid’s therapist and she explained that they were in the middle of a session and went on to explain she had been treating the kid for; something about reactive attachment disorder.

Nick heard the term but was not familiar with it. He did hear that the kid had issues with his mother. The question was what kid didn’t have issues. What his concern was how this kid came to die in the private residence of his therapist in the middle of the night. He looked at the shrink and asked, “How about you tell us what happened?”

Dr. Sapien certainly gave a plausible explanation. The kid had a seizure and hit his head. Yet they had to look at this like a crime had been committed. Looking at the doctor, Nick noticed fibers on her sweater. “Uh I take it this wasn’t his first convulsion.”

“He was diagnosed with epilepsy at age three,” Dr. Sapien replied looking at Catherine. When she realized how close Nick was, she asked, “What are you doing?”

Nick was looking right at the sweater and the fibers. Not removing his gaze he said, “Catherine, we need to get a tape lift here, please.” He then proceeded to take a look for anything else that might have been transfer on the doctor’s clothes. He got a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach as he inspected with his light.

Catherine tape lifted the fibers but she felt a bit apprehensive. Something wasn’t right but all she had was a suspicion and it didn’t have to exactly do with the evidence she was collecting but more on a different level. She would just have to watch and see. Right now she had a scene to process.

It was standard in collecting evidence and the coroner arrived. Nick was able to process what he could in the immediate area of the body. The feeling hadn’t gone away but it had lessened as he worked. Sometimes work did help and he wondered if that was how Sage felt on their first case together after she had been assaulted.

“You know I would have thought Parker would have been assigned to this,” David said as he prepped the body to be transported out. “She does know her way around the territory.”

“Yeah and watch a battle of the shrinks,” Catherine replied. She thought it would have been easier if she had been assigned to this one instead of gallivanting off with Grissom for punishment with the sheriff. She did consider following up with the CSI in question about the terms Dr. Sapien was using to verify.

That Sage would help out, Catherine didn’t doubt. If she was free, she would give a hand and often with an interesting perspective that was unique to her personality. It gave a whole new meaning to the concept of teen rebellion but it didn’t quite fit since Sage was like Sara and dedicated to the job. And she was well aware that Sage preferred to be recognized as a scientist first and a behavioral analyst second.

Most definitely Catherine decided to ask about it. The vibes she was getting from Nick, she would wait and see and most definitely Sage would pick up on it. Or if she didn’t then she would ask her about it. It was a bit humorous in that the newest CSI wanted to stick to the whole evidence collection thing but in the end she profiled the scene and made comments about the suspects.

The rest of the evidence collection was done and the scene was processed. David had taken the body back to the morgue for Doc Robbins to process. She climbed into the Tahoe followed by Nick. The truck was loaded with evidence to be taken in for processing. It was probably the most silent drive that Catherine ever had. She got the feeling that she should be talk to Sage as soon as possible and just as long as it didn’t interfere with her work and whatever Grissom had her doing.

Catherine did manage to find Sage working on logging in evidence from the case she was working on. One was a drill that she was lifting and putting on the table. She raised her brow at that since Sage, while in good physical shape, she looked delicate like she belonged at a debutante ball or something like that. Bringing in her evidence in, she said, “Heavy lifting?”

Sage held the drill in both hands and turning it around to inspect it for when she logged it in. She held it in imitation to those macho guys and their huge tools and replied, “I thought I would try a new means of exercise. How’s it going Cath?”

“Good,” Catherine replied as she took another table to log in her stuff. “Got a 419. Fourteen year old.”

“It stinks in general but minors are different,” Sage commented as she put the drill on the table and wrote down on the log sheet. “I’m guessing you think about Lindsey at those times huh?”

Catherine glanced at Sage. “Sometimes I do.”

“Well Lindsey’s a good girl. You teach her what she needs to know and prepare her the best you can and just be there when she falls.” Sage looked up from what she was doing and looked at Catherine who was looking at her intently. “I’m not a parent but… I know that we’re all human.”

When Catherine failed to respond, Sage cleared her throat a little and frowned since it was a bit uncomfortable. “Did you need something?”

“Sorry,” Catherine replied when she realized that she might have made Sage uncomfortable. “I do have a question though and I know you normally stay away from this kind of thing but…”

Sage couldn’t help but chuckle as she finished logging in everything, “Seems to be the common thing going on tonight.” She explained, “I have no idea if this is an eval or not but seems like I’m playing politics on this case with Grissom. What’s your question?”

Catherine felt her lip twitch in amusement. Sage had been the one to coin the term general dogs body and applied it to herself since she seemed to dip her hand into everything within the lab whether it had to do with a case or not. More often it was because it was asked of her and Catherine noticed that for all her eccentricities, Sage was a nice girl. She looked at Sage who was waiting and asked, “Have you ever heard of reactive attachment disorder?”

Sage looked at Catherine for a moment as she thought about it. “Has to do with your case?”

“Yeah. Kid was being seen by psychiatrist,” Catherine replied.

Sage got the impression that Catherine wanted to know more about this for reasons that extended to the case. She suspected that the psychiatrist in question was being looked at as a suspect. General rule was the one who found it is viewed as the first suspect until they are cleared. She nodded, “I have heard of it but it is not widely known. Rare disorder kind of thing.”

“Can you do a basic workup on that?”

“Suspect something?”

“First on the scene, first suspect,” Catherine replied. “Just something to refer to.”

Sage nodded at that. “I’ll work on something. You want technical or basic rundown?”

“Go to town,” Catherine replied. “Just remember not all of us have psych degrees.”

“Behavioral analysis,” Sage corrected with a smirk. “I’ll get you something Catherine. Give me some time. Been awhile since I’ve done research.” She smiled to indicate that she was teasing.

“Take your time and if you want you can observe interviews,” Catherine offered. It was a gut feeling she had and it did help to have someone who could understand the technical aspects of a field she didn’t have much experience in.

Sage replied, “I just might.” At that moment her pager beeped and she checked it. “Looks like the boss is ready for autopsy. Catch ya later.”

****

The coolness of autopsy was like a soothing lullaby at times. At 35.6 degrees it seemed cold but it was comfortable. Sage pushed open the door to autopsy dressed in the required coverings to join Grissom in looking at their dead body Roger Valenti. When she walked in, Grissom was inspecting for any signs of electrocution particularly on the hands. She pushed her sleeves up figuratively and got ready to join in.

“One of his hands should be burned,” Grissom was saying.

Sage looked at the body with a cursory glance. Usually when someone is electrocuted, they had a burn mark somewhere and there was a fern like pattern on the chest from the ruptured capillaries. Looking at Valenti, there were none of the classic signs of electrocution. The body contradicted they evidence in this case and Doc Robbins pointed that out.

“In most electrocution cases, capillaries rupture, hemoglobin leaks into the perivascular tissue,” Doc Robbins commented.

“Right,” Grissom replied, “Creating a fern-like pattern on the chest.”

It was easy to visualize the patterns. For Sage though the smell was something to look for. One of her CSIs from Metro had a couple of electrocution cases. The burnt smell was unique and when she tried to follow up, she couldn’t. She couldn’t smell anything that indicated something was burnt. She did tell him then that it wouldn’t hold in court so he best better had physical evidence. This… it defied textbook definitions.

“His body contradicts your crime scene,” Doc Robbins asserted.

Grissom in his typical fashion said, “I don’t care what his body says. This guy was electrocuted. It was not an accident.”

It was a tense moment as Sage just observed the body. She said in a rather gentle voice, “Doc, you said in most cases when you explained about the ruptured capillaries. So… maybe we are dealing in a case where the normal doesn’t apply.”

“Maybe so but there is no physical evidence on the body that says he was electrocuted,” Doc Robbins replied. “Besides that is a rare circumstance you are looking at.”

Sage looked up from her visual inspection. She had found nothing herself except that Valenti looked a little jaundiced. She was no pathologist so she was willing to wait until Doc Robbins completed his autopsy. She replied, “And every so often we get hit with the strange and unusual.”

Grissom and Doc Robbins both looked at her as they contemplated what she was saying. There wasn’t much to do except finish the preliminary inspection. Having satisfied that, Sage picked up the bags that held Valenti’s clothes and followed Grissom out. It was a bit somber. She adjusted the evidence bag so that she had a better grip on it. “I’m not disagreeing with you, Boss. I think he was electrocuted myself.”

“Based on the evidence?” Grissom asked the question more as to get her to explain her position much like a grad student would.

“Based upon the fact that we do have a faulty drill that shorted out with the third prong appeared to be sheared off,” Sage replied, knowing that Grissom wanted her to support her assertions. “The position of the drill to when we recovered it suggests that it was dropped more likely as he fell.”

“And the pliers?”

“Possibly the tool used to cut the third prong. Suggestive of tampering hence that this electrocution could be classified as homicide.” Sage paused a moment to take a breath. “You do realize though that the sheriff is not going to see it as electrocution and will be chewing us out to release the scene.”

“Politics have detrimental effects on the evidence Sage,” Grissom replied. “It is more about image.”

“You don’t need to tell me twice,” Sage replied, “I was in your position once. What I am trying to say is that Mobley is not going to take kindly to us poking the giant. It looks bad for PR since I am assuming that he is considering running for mayor. Putting a spin on in the press usually doesn’t bode well for the ones who are doing their jobs and collecting the evidence.”

Grissom thought about it a moment. He knew she was right. “Our job is to speak for the victim.”

“I’m with you on that,” Sage said. “I really am Boss. Just a thing to keep in mind though I think most of our time will be on the evidence.” She paused as they rounded the corner. “The drill and pliers have been logged in. I’ll log these in.”

“Give the pliers to Warrick and have him run it. I’ll take the drill.”

“And have Sara look at the clothes and I’ll take the paperwork,” Sage replied in good humor. “Unless there is some paperwork that needs to be filled out and then all you do is just sign.”

“You have lovely handwriting,” Grissom said in an attempt to appease her. He appreciated her work but he had considered her words. He knew that her status was in limbo since it was probationary. The less involved with the case was probably the best but even he knew that she wouldn’t stay out of it. She would find a way to help.

Sage took the hint. She had to be the one to say it in regards to the politics. That was fine since she had that thing to look up for Catherine. She had to say it though, “You don’t have to shield me Grissom. You brought me along and the sheriff knows I’m on it.”

“Just humor me.”

“You know I will. Just saying that I would still like to help on the case. Sara and I can look at them together.”

Grissom wasn’t sure he wanted that. He had seen how they pushed each other. Then again the court day seemed to have run well.

“Hey you’re the lead on this. We’d just be running the analysis anyway,” Sage pointed out.

There was that and Grissom thought about it for a moment. “Alright. This was supposed to be an evaluation. Still Sara will look at the clothing. Be ready for anything else.”

“Figures. On it Boss.”

****

It was easy to get lost in whatever one was doing when processing evidence. Sage though was sitting in the break room with her laptop and scanning through the internet at medical sites. She was curious about the jaundice that Valenti had. She hadn’t pointed it out to the coroner since she wasn’t an expert in human anatomy and she had no idea if it had any bearing on the case.

She also took the time to look up what Catherine had asked her. She was familiar with the disorder. It’s shortened form was RAD. She was familiar but by no means an expert in the subject. In the field, it was one of the rarest and understudied disorders. It’s symptoms tended to mirror those of other mental disorders which made it difficult to diagnose; either it was misdiagnose, underdiagnosed or over diagnosed. It was like trying to assess for ADHD in kids when often times it could be kids just being kids; they were squirrely.

Sage studied the screen and then did a cross reference with her book that she borrowed from the collection. Scrolling through the sites she had uncovered, she could see that she had her work cut out for her in putting something together for Catherine. She didn’t mind doing it since she was familiar with the medical terms. It was just the way how the senior CSI asked that had Sage wondering about it. It led her to believe that there was something about the kid’s shrink that didn’t sit right with Catherine and she wanted to cover her bases.

Sage tapped the keys but didn’t really press it as she stared at the screen. Her eyes just sifted through the words and absorbed the information. She glanced at her book again and then picked up her pencil and began writing down her points.

“I know that look. Reminds me of when I used to study for a big test.”

Sage looked up and spotted Warrick. She gave a slight smile, “Yeah well I guess some things never change. You get anything off the palm print?”

“Going to work that now. What are you doing here? I thought you’d be with Grissom and looking for evidence.” Warrick frowned as Sage continued to write her notes down.

“Paperwork. There.” Sage pointed to the stack of finished paperwork. “Plus I am working the case. There was something about the body that I wanted to check out and Catherine asked me for a favor.”

“Oh one of those. You know what you’re getting into when you do favors with Catherine?”

“Sure do. Don’t worry about it,” Sage replied as she sat back in her seat.

Warrick took a glance at the laptop. It looked like an information site and the book looked like it belonged in the reference section of the library. “Alright. Catch ya later Parker.”

“Good luck on the print,” Sage countered and went back to work. She ignored the jaundice thing and continued through what Catherine asked her to do. It wasn’t hard to get the information. It was just a matter of organizing it just in case she wanted a hard copy of what she found.

She finished and closed her laptop. The formal hard copy could wait. After making sure her laptop was secure, she went in search of Catherine. She was not in the evidence locker so she went searching. A hunting expedition usually was fun. Before she went, she managed to get half a cup of coffee and tossed the cup. Half was better than none in this case even though she would love a full cup and black.

She happened to come across where Grissom was working on the drill and examining where the short was. Sara was busy looking through the clothes collected from the body. She appeared to be frustrated and it showed when she said, “I don’t even know what I’m looking for.”

“Signs of charring or melting,” Grissom replied, “You’ve done this before.”

Sage decided to pause a moment and listen in. She got a brief acknowledgement from Sara as she reached for a pair of latex gloves and set aside her notes where it wouldn’t interfere. She moseyed along and picked up a magnifying glass.

“Yeah but, we always go back to the body. The body tells the story and in this case, the body says there was no crime and you’re not listening. Well you and Parker both.”

“Leave me out of this,” Sage commented with a slight grin as she picked up the hard hat and started to inspect it. “But I do concur that our guy was electrocuted.”

Grissom went back to unscrewing the panel. “Every now and then, we have to break the rules. We start with a conclusion and work our way backwards.”

“Inductive versus deductive,” Sage quipped.

“Very good,” Grissom replied.

“So we do this when we don’t agree with the coroner’s report?” She couldn’t help but grin at that. Sage she could understand pursuing this but Grissom was different. He was always about following the evidence.

“Like for instance when surgery was Russian roulette and the patients were dying on the tables,” Grissom replied. It seemed a good opportunity to teach some more.

“Germs,” Sara gave the answer with an inquisitive and straight face.

“Right,” Sage pointed out as she looked up from inspecting the hard hat. “Louis Pasteur theorized that something we couldn’t see, microscopic organisms aka germs, were attacking the patients. His gooseneck flask was an interesting experiment.”

Sara looked at the two. Sage had gone back to inspecting the clothing and Grissom went back to working with the drill. “Relevance?”

“Bodies tell us stories because we interpret them the way our predecessors taught us to,” Grissom replied, “Just because we don’t see something we’re not supposed to see doesn’t mean that it’s not there.” He gave Sara a look that said she should have known that.

Sara made a slight face and went back to inspecting Valenti’s clothes. She glanced over at Sage and asked, “And do you agree with that?”

“Actually I was looking at the behavior. It wasn’t consistent with suicide,” Sage replied glancing over at Sara. When she caught her eye she gave a slight smile and Sara grinned in return.

Grissom glanced over at the pair before going back to work on the drill. Finally removing the panel, he was able to inspect the wiring. Using the screwdriver he had used, he was able to move what he wanted to look at and separate the individual wires. What he found definitely supported his assertion that Valenti was electrocuted and it wasn’t an accident. “Wires are crossed. Polarity’s been reversed.”

Sara and Sage dropped what they were doing to come over and take a look. Sage took a peek and noted the crossed wires. Grissom was right. “So it confirms that someone tampered with the drill.”

Sara was leaning over and looking as well. “Then the rubber soles of his boots should have protected him from electrical shock.” She moved to inspect Valenti’s work boots. “That’s why you’re safe in a car during a lightning storm. You’re insulated by the rubber tires.”

It turned out that the work boots may have been compromised by the nail Grissom noticed in the sole of one of the boots. It was beginning to look more like what Grissom was heading towards regarding the victim.


	3. Chapter 3

“I don’t know, but I do know that Parker agrees with Grissom on this one.” Sara looked at the screen as Warrick ran the palm print through AFIX.

“Parker?”

“Yeah something about behavior not being consistent.”

“That’s Parker. The shrink thing always comes up,” Warrick replied with a slight smile as stared at the screen. “It’s as natural as breathing with that girl.”

Sara made a slight face at that. That much was true about Sage. She always seemed to notice some aspect of human behavior that helped in the case in some way. More often it explained the why even though they usually weren’t in the business of finding out the why. Though in their case in court, it proved very useful to disprove the defense’s position that he had a mental defect. “Tell me about it.”

“Do I need to?” Warrick looked at Sara with a slight smile. It really was no big deal to him whether or not Sage did her analysis thing. He thought it interesting because he had heard what she thought of a few of the day shift people, that which she confided to him, and she used her psych talk to describe it. He thought about it for a moment and then said, “Well she did say that the criteria used to define crazy are subjective.”

“Meaning?”

“Meaning that anyone could be called crazy and not in the kidding fashion,” Sage said as she straightened up from the door frame she had been leaning on. She looked at Sara and Warrick who were looking at her trying to figure out how long she had been standing there. “So if I went by my criteria, I would say that you are my kind of crazy.”

“Come one Parker, you don’t really believe that?” Warrick gave a dry chuckle at that.

“What do you think?” Sage replied with a slight challenging look in her eye. It was the same look she gave the techs when they went about their work… Greg especially in producing the results.

Sara recognized the challenge right away. When they worked their last case together, Sage said something similar but in relation to the case. It had them dig deeper and now they had the guy and the case was a slam dunk in court. She gave a grin, “You mean that whole conversation we had about the big T’s and little T’s; how some truths are absolute and some are not as concrete. That’s what this is about right?”

“I guess I can give partial credit to Sara Sidle,” Sage replied grinning.

“And what does it have to do with the case?” Warrick looked at Sage with a slightly raised brow. It was times like these that he wondered how it was that Nick understood her and of course Greg understood her the most. Grissom didn’t count since they seemed to be cast from the same mold but with a few differences that were… he wasn’t sure how to describe it.

“Same thing about Pasteur. Right Sara?”

Sara gave a slight smile and a nod. She noticed that Grissom had his way of teaching and Sage had her own way of contributing. Sometimes they ran parallel or on the same tracks. “Right. So what are you doing here, Parker?”

“Cath hunting,” Sage offered without further explanation.

“Oh I get it,” Warrick replied with a smirk. “I warned ya about doing a favor for her.”

“And I can handle it,” Sage replied with a grin. She looked at the screen and saw Warrick’s work. “Nice job on the palm print.”

“Thanks,” Warrick allowed. “You know I think Cath was heading towards the break room or evidence locker. You might catch her.”

“Thanks,” Sage replied. She started to walk out of the print lab. “Catch ya guys later.”

“And there she flies,” Warrick said as he watched Sage leave. Maybe he exaggerated a little as to where Catherine had gone but it was always interesting to watch Sage run around. She made it look like an art form and it was funny when a few people mistook her for the front desk clerk. She did admit that she jogged during the day and sometimes worked on sprinting to stay in shape.

Sara watched Sage leave and gave a slight grin. “She’ll need another cup soon.”

Warrick chuckled, “Nah. She’s running on half a cup. She didn’t even have one when the shift started.”

“Are you serious?”

“Yep.”

The two CSIs talked a bit more about it and it eventually led to Warrick mentioning that there were odds against Grissom getting reprimanded, suspended or fired. He even mentioned that Bobby named odds on Sage being used to oust Grissom. Sara thought that last bit was a bit overreaching as well as Warrick. It was clear to everyone who managed to get used to five minutes being around Sage that she had no aspirations for supervisor.

It didn’t help though that Grissom had been eaves dropping after coming to find out about the print lifted from the pliers. The palm prints came back to Bob Harris and Grissom was glad for something. He said, “Good for us but bad if you bet against me.”

In the meantime Sage was still looking for Catherine and nearly ran into Nick again. “Sorry.”

“At it again?”

Sage paused a moment. She detected a slight change in the timbre of Nick’s comment but his demeanor indicated that he was teasing. She was thoughtful about it as she replied, “Something like that. I was looking for Catherine.”

Nick looked at Sage and noticed she had given him a look that was quickly gone the moment he said something when they ran into each other. He hadn’t seen that look before but decided not to press it. More likely it was a look born of surprise. “Catherine’s around.”

“I figured,” Sage replied with a smile. “It’s nothing important. I’m sure she could find me.” She glanced at her watch. “Well back to the mines.”

“And where is that?”

Sage felt her phone go off. She pulled it out and saw a text message on there. She read it and replied, “PD. Gotta play politics I guess.” She started to change her direction and walk towards where the cars were kept.

“You’re working on that DB at the new jailhouse right?” Nick walked alongside of her. He was heading towards the autopsy room about his 419 but decided to take a few minutes.

“Yeap and contrary to rumor, I don’t think it is a suicide,” Sage replied. “Of course I’m there just to be the dog and pony show.” She giggled slightly when she said it.

“You do realize that the sheriff has his hands somewhat in this?”

“Of course,” Sage replied as if she were handling a young child. She could tell that Nick was trying not to smile even though he was pretending to be indignant. “Mobley knows because I was there and did a parlor trick with my psychobabble. So he knows that my hand is in this pot even though Grissom is lead.”

“More like you just offered a possibility with your uncanny ability to give a logical argument,” Nick countered, “Kind of like the whole thing with our bowling arrangement.” He gave a sly grin. It wasn’t his best move ever but sometimes the worst thing worked out in the end.

“Oh I don’t think so Stokes. You’re not getting anything out of me,” Sage replied once she realized what Nick was after. “You agreed to the rules beforehand so now you have to suffer through them.”

Nick smiled feeling a little better but he still had that feeling in the pit of his stomach and he still had to go over the dead boy in autopsy. “You really are sticking to this aren’t ya Parker?”

“If I didn’t stick to my own rules, the ship would have sunk long ago. Though sometimes I think it did when I wasn’t looking,” Sage replied. She stopped before the main desk and gave a slight clearing of her throat, “Well I better go and I guess you got a case to work on?”

“Yeah. Um… I might be asking you a few things later. Mostly shrink stuff.” Nick felt like he was a little kid asking for something and he was sure Catherine already asked but…

“Big assumption that I would help you,” Sage countered but much more gently than she normally would have delivered it. She sensed that this case was going to be sensitive to Nick so she would just have to be observant over it.

“Please.”

“Oh so you’re asking now,” Sage teased, “And you said please.” She smiled a bit, “You know I’ll do what I can. You know how to hunt me down.”

“Bad choice of words,” Nick replied smiling in return. “Thanks Parker.”

“No problem. Partners right?” Sage smiled and turned to leave in order to catch up with Grissom.

“Right,” Nick agreed as he watched Sage disappear to go do whatever it was she was going to do.

****

If Sage harbored any notions about the impending questioning being pleasant, she was disillusioned immediately. Actually she didn’t expect much standing in front of Sheriff Mobley and Bob Harris. Politics was politics and it often was a cruel beast and good at throwing people under the bus when it was convenient.

She drove on the way to PD HQ much to Grissom’s amusement. She glanced over, “You sure you don’t want me to switch careers. I could moonlight on the strip.”

“Consider it appeasement for being assigned to this case,” Grissom replied with a slight smile.

“I guess I should assume that the pleasantries will be out the door considering that the print matches Mr. Harris,” Sage replied as she drove. She didn’t have a problem with the Vegas traffic. She had driven through major metropolis streets and Nick had been telling stories about her driving though most people thought he was pulling their leg with that one.

He got her back eventually and that started their subtle pranks and bets game that was usually trying to find out something embarrassing about the other. Sometimes she spoon fed him one like when he learned she went to church and believed in God. He had to earn the story about Reverend Jimmy Barker with the chemistry degree and he had a hard time believing that. Of course that set up for the story she told about stowing aboard a skiff to hunt alligators. She never did but it was certainly funny.

Grissom hummed a bit at that. Probably it was selfish to use Sage as a buffer since she did seem to have a way of talking to people but when dispatch sent the call through, it seemed like a good idea to have someone who could work and know how to get things done when politics entered the issue. When he realized it could spell trouble, he did say he wanted her to step back and with good reason since she was still on probation and it worked both ways.

“Walk in the park, Boss,” Sage said as she made another turn. She glanced at Grissom with a slight grin to indicate that she had some idea of what he was thinking of. “I used to be in your position once. You kind of get a certain feel for it even though you’d rather spend your time trying to solve crimes.”

“I take it that you had interesting encounters with upper management,” Grissom allowed.

“More or less. In the end though, there are some things you tend to realize,” Sage reverted her gaze back to the road. “The big issue is always about budget and image. Yet to keep that image like the lab being the second best in the country, you need the equipment, the money and the expertise. So in the end, I was an advocate and I learned a few tricks when it came to dealing with that.”

“Maybe I should have you fill out my grants,” Grissom replied.

“I don’t think so,” Sage replied with a slight chuckle. “Unless we’re backed up.” Sage wasn’t one to begrudge help when it was asked for.

Grissom said nothing but gave a slight smile as he returned his focus to the case. He knew that this was going to be difficult especially if Mobley was doing what he could to try and direct the investigation. “I’ll hold you to that.”

“Most folks do,” Sage replied as she finished the drive towards the PD HQ.

It wasn’t a pleasant conversation at all. Sage watched as Grissom asked Bob Harris about his prints being on the metal cutters. Bob Harris was indignant, “My prints are on the metal cutters because my prints are all over everything at the site. I’m the project manager.”

“There’s no mystery here,” Mobley added in a tone that suggested that this was basics and Grissom should know this.

Sage thought that was a good argument. A defense attorney would say that it could have been touched and someone planted it there. She didn’t say anything though as Grissom asked, “You’re the project manager but you don’t actually use all the tools, right?”

“I’m vigilant about safety. I’m always inspecting the equipment, tools…”

“Look, this is what’s going to happen,” Mobley interrupted, “The construction site is going to reopen and the investigation goes away.”

“Sure. After the lab processes all the evidence,” Grissom replied. He gave a polite smile at that and excused himself when Brass tapped on the glass to speak with him. He glanced at Sage as he went out, aware that she was being set up for an ambush.

Grissom wasn’t wrong. While he was talking to Brass, Mobley rounded in on Sage, “Parker, you’re also on this case. What are your thoughts?”

Sage was well aware that this was an interrogation of sorts. Probably a means to get her to convince Grissom to back off on this and he did have a bargaining chip… somewhat. She looked at the sheriff and Harris and replied, “Well a good argument was made for the defense in that Mr. Harris’ prints are all over the site.”

“Parker,” Mobley replied. His face was expressionless on the surface but a closer look would have revealed that he was frustrated with Sage.

“That was my thoughts. Now if you want my thoughts on the case at large, the lab needs to finish processing. That means the site is still CSI property.” Sage looked at the sheriff and then at Harris. “This investigation is not going to go away. A man was killed by electrocution and fell twelve stories down. Someone messed with his drill by cutting the third prong. I would think that you’d want the public to know how diligent you are about investigating the death of someone who was building a new jailhouse to house the criminals.”

At that moment Grissom came back. Mobley asked, “Well what was that all about?”

Grissom shrugged his shoulders. He looked over at Sage and she appeared to have said something that made the sheriff a bit thoughtful. He would have to ask her later. “Ah we’re in a bowling league together.”

Can we wrap this up?”

“Sure,” Grissom replied, “Someone tampered with Roger Valenti’s drill. And I have only one suspect.” He looked at Harris as he said that.

“I read the coroner’s prelim,” Mobley replied, “There is nothing in it about electrocution.”

“That is why they call it a prelim,” Sage replied with a slightly raised brow. “I prefer to read the full report myself.”

Grissom resisted the urge to smirk at that. He turned his focus to Harris. “Mr. Harris, were you opposed to Roger Valenti’s union activities?”

“Of course not. I’m a union man myself,” Harris replied irritated at the accusation.

“You’re fishing Gil. We’re done here,” Mobley replied, “Moving on.”

Grissom and Sage watched them both leave. Sage couldn’t help but say, “You know how to ask them.”

“It had to be asked,” Grissom replied.

“No doubt about that,” Sage replied in agreement. She started walking with Grissom down the hall. “Union activities have a history of negative responses especially when they first decided to form and demand for safer equipment, more pay and a break system.”

“Still leaves room for dissenters within a group.”

“The way it is with factions.” Sage put one of her hands on her hip and waved the other for emphasis. She hadn’t worn a jacket simply because it was a nice night out for her and she didn’t feel the cold though some people would have thought her to be crazy. “Unions are like factions in that they are there for a common goal but that doesn’t mean that they all agree on the same thing. So I get your point but it is pretty weak Boss. We have metal cutters but what about the drill itself? Prints? Tool marks on the prong?”

“You make a good case.”

“I can start comparisons when we get back.” Sage was ready to leap at the prospect of doing something like comparing tool marks. She studied Grissom a moment before continuing, “You know we know something about the person who did this. He works at the site. If you want my honest opinion, I don’t think Harris did it.”

Grissom would have responded but Brass called down the hall for Sage. She looked at him with a raised brow and in response to her silent question he said, “I’ll wait.”

“Keep the motor running,” Sage replied before heading in the direction of Brass. When she got to the Jersey detective she asked, “What do you need Brass? I don’t have anything pending.”

Brass led the way, “As I said to Grissom I don’t like being put in the middle.”

“No one does. What gives Brass?” Sage probably didn’t need to ask the question but in this case it was probably warranted since she suspected something was up the moment Brass called her over. AS she said, she didn’t have a case pending at that moment so this was something else.

Brass cleared his throat and motioned into a waiting area where the sheriff was waiting. He looked at her, “Look kid, watch yourself in there.”

Sage looked in and then at the detective, “You don’t have to tell me twice.”

“Just be nice and try not to be too rude,” Brass offered as a word of advice. “Just cover your ass and run.”

Sage gave a humorless chuckle as she went in to meet the sheriff, “Sheriff, is there something that you need? You know I can recommend a good therapist. Believe it or not a few colleagues moved out here and I looked them up.” She adopted her polite pose that was almost a guarantee to make someone agitated but they couldn’t do anything because she was being polite.

Mobley was not in the best of moods and it seemed that he was going to face agitation from Sage. He maintained his stern look and replied, “Enough with the pleasantries Parker.”

“Funny, I always thought it was important to be polite since it shows that you have some respect for the place or person that you are dealing with,” Sage replied with a polite countenance. She even clasped her hands in front of her and almost looked like a little girl being presented to her grandparents or something.

“Parker, I’m going to lay this out straight,” Mobley countered. He was not going to go along with this. “Recuse yourself from this case.”

“Excuse me?”

“Recuse yourself. You have a good career ahead of you here at the lab. Your work in DC is well documented. I would hate to see someone of your caliber go down because of poor judgment on your supervisor’s part.”

Sage knew this tactic well since it was once or twice employed against her using one of her CSIs. Of course though the sheriff didn’t want an excuse to fire her or anything like that since she was considered a feather in his cap; no doubt another thing to use about running for mayor or whatever office. She studied the sheriff and let him continue until she found a break to reply, “I do what I do because I believe in finding justice, sir. The reputation is because of my dedication to the job. Nothing more.”

“Don’t do this to yourself Parker.”

Sage reminded herself to play nice as Brass suggested. She pursed her lips slightly and then said, “Sir, if you knew me, then you would know that I don’t generally quit cases even if it was highly suggested. And if you are suggesting that I ask Grissom to back off, that won’t happen.”

“Your loyalties could prove dangerous considering your precarious state,” Mobley replied in a warning tone. “Probation works on both ends.”

Sage looked at the sheriff. So that was how the game was going to be played. It was a nice way to scare CSIs into playing patzi for the big bosses. Of course they fessed up to her right away but that was DC. She was the new kid here and not many would fall on the sword for her and it wasn’t like she would encourage them to do that anyway. “I am well aware of that sir but I am a CSI. I collect evidence and try to determine the truth. It’s about justice and if the fact that I don’t support or help in sweeping investigations under the rug to help certain mayor wannabes… just speaks for itself.”

“Grissom is fishing going after Bob and you know it. I saw it.”

“Maybe so but he is my supervisor. I can agree to disagree and that will be it but I will not play patzi,” Sage replied. Her tones had been even and it made her southern accent more pronounced. “Sheriff, you know as well as I that sometimes the evidence leads us to places and possibly where we don’t want to go but it has to be faced. If Mr. Harris isn’t guilty then we will find the evidence to support it. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to get back to the lab.”

Sage started to walk away. She only paused when Mobley said, “You play a dangerous game with your job Parker… but it seems that you’ve made your point.”

Sage turned to look at the sheriff. She replied, “I try to using the evidence, Sheriff. Good day.”

Mobley felt a smirk threaten. She had not lost her temper but insisted on this polite outlook. He had noticed that she refrained from becoming personal and used titles of respect. “Precarious state, Parker,” he reminded her.

Sage heard it and could guess what he meant. At least for now she wasn’t going to be fired. She looked at Grissom and climbed into the passenger side of the Tahoe. It was going to be a long and interesting night.


	4. Chapter 4

Nick paused and looked at the evidence bag that held the clothes of Dylan Buckley. Taking a breath he opened it and began pulling out the clothes and putting them on the lighted table. Picking up his light, he started scouring the clothes. He could feel a sense of urgency rise; it was a need to find something. Something about the way they found the kid didn’t sit right with him. He was suspicious about the circumstances the kid was found.

There was nothing on his shirt or pants but he came across something that was out of place. He paused the moment his light came across it and hovered over it. The fibers he had spotted looked similar to the fibers that he found on Dr. Sapien’s sweater that Catherine had lifted. Fibers on the kid’s boxers but not his other clothes? Something was out of place here.

That uncomfortable feeling that he had in the pit of stomach seemed to increase as he looked at the fibers he just lifted. He knew he couldn’t jump the gun yet since it was a visual comparison. He needed to get these down to Greg and have him do a workup on it. He looked for anything else and resealed up the kid’s clothes.

Greg was busy with samples from another case looking like he was hard at it. It was a surprise to Nick since he always seemed a bit jovial and still managed to get things done. “Greg, what’s up?”

“Nothing,” Greg replied as he continued to work, “Just working on a case.”

“No music? Nothing?”

“Figured I’d try some quiet,” Greg replied. His voice was calm and he was just working his samples with a serious air. “I’ve been trying to see if I can tune things out like Sage does. You know I could be blasting rock and roll and she doesn’t flinch and she’s not even wearing earplugs.”

Nick could admit that was impressive. He worked with that quite a bit. “Yeah well have you tried working with her and she appears to be concentrating but knows almost every move?”

“Like when she threatened to throw her pen at you?” Greg broke into a grin. “She’s threatened me with that too.” He looked at what Nick had and finished what he was doing and set it aside. “So you have something for me?”

“That’s creepy dude. Don’t do that again,” Nick replied referring to Greg’s folded hands.

“Do what? I’m just giving you my full attention,” Greg replied with an innocent look on his face. He looked expectantly at Nick.

“That,” Nick replied pointing at Greg’s posture, “Parker does that and that’s her. From you… creepy.”

“Well I learned a few things and found that it works,” Greg replied with a nonchalant shrug. He was grinning since he managed to make Nick a little uncomfortable at his imitation of Sage. It only proved that there was something there but it just wasn’t quite where it should be. He jumped back to his usual demeanor and asked, “So you have something for me?”

“Yeah,” Nick replied and handed over the samples. “I need you to find out what these are and see if they come from the same source. You know, the usual.” He gave a second look to make sure that Greg was back to his usual self. It was just creepy that Greg adopted that innocent kid look that Sage used when she was being polite with people even when she was not amused with them.

Greg glanced at the sample and replied, “I’ll get to it.”

“Thanks,” Nick replied and turned to leave. At that moment Doc Robbins paged him that the mother was there so he would head in that direction.

“No problem.”

Nick headed down to the coroner’s office and came in just as Mrs. Buckley was leaving. He spoke up, “Mrs. Buckley?”

“Yeah?” The woman looked homely in her street clothes. Her hooded sweater clung to her frame and her hands in her pockets made it seem clingier. Her hair hung limply and seemed to emphasize her feelings of shock and grief that her son was dead.

Nick took in her appearance and search for the words that would be best to use. “I’m Nick Stokes from the Crime Lab. I’ve been assigned to your son’s case.”

“Crime Lab?” Mrs. Buckley looked confused at the fact that there was somebody there stating that he was from the Crime Lab.

“It’s protocol,” Nick explained, trying to soften that part of reality. This was always the hard part of the job. For once he had Sage’s way with people. She was a natural but as she was fond of saying, he had to find his own way of doing that part of the job. It was never easy but if you found a means of telling it that put the next of kin at ease, then you were set. At that moment he found that his way seemed to be working.

Mrs. Buckley was still in disbelief, like she couldn’t believe what had happened to her son, “We were just having pizza together. He seemed fine and I dropped him off at Dr. Sapien’s and… My husband passed away three years ago and now my…”

Nick watched in silence as the tears started to form. He still had an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach but he just listened. He felt his throat convulse as he watched the mother as she wiped the beginnings of tears away.

“My baby’s gone.”

“I understand,” Nick offered.

“If you’ll excuse me, I need to go make arrangements,” Mrs. Buckley continued in a watery voice. She started walking down the hall, the tears began to fall.

Nick didn’t look back but let her go. He did offer his condolences and heard her whispered thanks. He stood there for a moment and wondered how Sage could do this and still keep going. He was well aware that she had seen things with children and crime and she told him how bad it was. Every CSI had something that affected them and in this case… he and Sage could relate when it came to minors.

Brushing it aside he continued towards autopsy and found Doc Robbins looking down at Dylan Buckley lying on the slab. Nick sidled up and stood with his hands behind his back and joined in looking down at the kid. He didn’t say anything.

“My youngest just turned fourteen,” Doc Robbins finally said, “Tough age.”

It seemed this affected people in more ways than one. Nick sucked it up and asked, “Cause of death?”

Doc Robbins glanced at Nick before looking back down at the boy, “Cranial- cerebral injuries. Comminuted fractures of the occipital bone.”

Nick nodded slightly. It was easy to visualize how it happened. He swallowed slightly as he asked, “Injuries consistent with a grand mal seizure?”

“First blush? Yes,” Doc Robbins replied. His eyes never left the body. “Waiting on toxicology. In the meantime, check out his torso,” he continued as he lowered the white sheet to reveal Dylan’s chest.

Nick was surprised at what he saw. It looked like the kid was beaten up. “He’s covered in bruises.” He looked at Doc Robbins, “Possibly from being thrashed during the seizure?”

“Possibly.”

Something didn’t seem right to Nick as he took in the bruises. That feeling in the pit of his stomach was making itself known. “I found tan fibers on his boxers.”

Doc Robbins lifted his head at that. “You too huh? His body’s covered in them.”

Nick sighed as they talked it through. The evidence was building up and he didn’t like where this was going. “Fibers on his body and his underwear but not on his shirt and pants, why?”

“Maybe it was as simple as he wasn’t wearing his shirt and pants.”

“Okay then at some point he was with his shrink in his underwear,” Nick reasoned out as he tried to account for fibers on the body and boxers. This was definitely not going where he liked and he could feel it.

Doc Robbins was getting the same feeling, “Exactly what kind of therapy _was_ this?”

Nick didn’t have an answer for that but he was starting to think a worst case scenario in this situation. He frowned as he looked at the body at the bruises and thought about it. “I don’t know.”

“You thinking about asking Parker?”

“Maybe but right now she’s on a case,” Nick replied. Even though he had asked and gave her a heads up, he wasn’t going to bother her since she had her own work. “I got this. You got samples of fibers from the body?”

“Yeah, sent it to trace.”

Nick finished up and left the doc to finish his autopsy and report. He needed some time to think and find Catherine and give her what he found. It was tempting to track down Sage and ask for help since she knew more or less the basics of psychology and probably knew a dozen or so disorders off the bat. Yet he was reluctant to do so. Catherine he had to work with since they were both assigned to the case. Sage was different and it wasn’t because he didn’t trust her. She was his partner, a friend that was fun to banter with. This was different.

****

Sage felt a little bad that she had left Grissom in a huff like she did. It wasn’t his fault but she was just agitated by what happened at Homicide. She had it happen before when she was in Grissom’s position as supervisor back east but the sting was still the same. At least Grissom tried to be understanding.

She had gotten into the passenger side citing that it probably wasn’t a good idea that she drive. She suggested that the stories Nick told about her driving were true. The fact of the matter was that she needed time to cool down a bit.

Grissom had been understanding and got in the driver’s side and headed back to the lab. On the way there, he asked about what had happened and she spilled on it. She told him what the sheriff said. In response he suggested that maybe the sheriff was right in suggesting that she back off. It certainly was a logically argument.

Sage knew Grissom was doing his job. She would do the same in his position. She even conceded that but she also said that she told the sheriff that she aimed to solve this case. Looking back it was probably foolish the way she spoke to him. She even said that she wouldn’t play patzi or anything like that with the team to save her skin.

She could blame that on her father’s insistence on loyalty. The man was a Marine and he ate, drank and breathed semper fidelis even though he was long retired. He now taught at a boys’ school and managed to instill this sense of honor in his students. He raised her and Cassie on it but it meant something different to the both of them as they grew up. You could say that it was bred in her bones and she admitted that she did have a loyalty streak.

They talked a bit but eventually the ride became silent and Sage defaulted on her method of dealing with anger and stress. She conjugated verbs starting with the basics and in French first. She did the same verbs in a couple of other languages. It surprised her when Grissom commented on her languages and pronunciation. She explained that it was a means of telling how flustered she was. Grissom accepted that and cited that when he needed to unload, he rode roller coasters. That started a brief conversation for the rest of the trip.

She had felt a little bit better but she still needed a bit more time and she was out of the Tahoe before saying anything. She wandered back in and considered heading to the garage to pace a bit. Anyone working in there would know to ignore her and she never got in the way if they were busy. As she passed by the front desk she was stopped by the receptionist. Turning in the direction that the receptionist pointed she saw someone that surprised her.

Sage went to greet her visitor, “A bit late to be paying a visit. Been a long time Gari. Last time we saw each other you were telling me about a girl that you were determined to marry.”

Gari Matthews looked down at the girl that had been nothing but the best friend he could ever have during the college years. Certainly she was a harsh taskmaster when it came to being study buddies for those presentations and exams that were killer. He smiled and replied, “You wouldn’t believe how hard it was to track you down. For the past three months I thought you were with Metro. Surprised me when I found that you were here in Vegas.”

Sage chuckled a bit, “Sorry about that. You wanna go outside and talk?”

“Lead the way. You always do Mule,” Gari replied, teasing her with the old nickname from school.

“And you follow, Nag,” Sage replied finishing as she led the way out. They passed Grissom but he hardly noticed since he was engrossed in his own thoughts about the case. Once they were outside in the parking lot, Sage turned towards her old friend and asked, “So Gari, what gives with this visit?”

“Been a long time Sage,” Gari replied with a slight shrug of his shoulders. “The last time we spoke was when things were not going good. Cassie was…”

“She was sleeping with my ex-partner,” Sage finished. She didn’t want to go into too much detail but she knew that Gari would eventually get it out of her. They were two peas in a pod in reference to their credentials. She would give him enough and he would back off, “That didn’t end well.”

“That bad huh?”

“I don’t even know why I bother with her,” Sage said as she looked off in the distance. “At least she took the hint and stopped leaving me messages.” She put her hands on her hips after running a hand through her hair. “But that won’t stop her from trying. Mama has been on my case a couple of times.”

Gari was well aware of the situation between Sage and Cassie. He actually met the family and that had been an interesting situation. He didn’t press for details but he always suspected that Sage lived her life being compared to her sister and always falling short of expectations with most everybody except her father, grandparents and a few cousins. “I take it she’s been calling and saying that you are rude for not calling your sister back.”

“Yep and still bugging me to see if I met someone and decided to get out of my phase and settle down.” Sage sighed and shook her head. “But I’m guessing that you are here for something other than checking up on me.”

Gari gave a slight eye roll that was meant for teasing, “No I just get a kick out of dropping in and checking in on the best friend I’ll ever have because of family issues.”

“And you’re still a flatterer… for a bi,” Sage teased. “I was glad to help in giving the push with Lily. How is she by the way?”

“Doing good,” Gari replied, letting the change of subject slide. Discussing her family was a sore point and he suspected that the reason she moved out here was because of something that happened regarding her sister. “We’re going to have a baby in June.”

“So that’s why you drove out here in the middle of the night,” Sage replied gesturing with her finger like it was an ‘aha’ moment. She smiled and gave a sigh of happiness. “Seriously, that is good news Gari. I know you two were trying for years.”

“Yeah and we followed your advice and that was to not try so hard,” Gari replied recalling the ‘I told you so’ moments they sprung on each other. “I guess you are as smart as they say you are.”

Sage made a snort that was very unladylike. She managed to chuckle a bit. “God I miss these Gari. Moving here and settling in… it’s a long process and it is a bit lonely.”

“You seemed to have settled in nicely. The last time I saw you that hopping mad was when you were on the trail of that serial child molester. The Southern hurricane struck then and looks like she’s made her way to Vegas.”

“Things are okay, I’ll admit. I have at least one friend that has made me feel welcome and we hang out quite a bit.” Sage smiled as she remembered the last fun night she and Greg had. “Another… we get along.”

Gari noted the slight tone change when she mentioned the other that she got along with. He knew what that meant in Parker language in terms of the word usage. The tone changed that slightly on his end. He said nothing but commented, “So I’m to be replaced by someone else now?”

Sage gave a dry chuckle at that. She saw that Gari was grinning at her and letting her know that he was teasing her. “You’re always my best friend, Gari. Greg is like a little brother to me. I can’t say that in there though since most would think it too soon to be assuming that familiarity.”

“True but from a psychiatrist standpoint, I think that you are a special case. I’m assuming that you both are closer in age but with just enough distinction to have the relationship you have.”

“Psychobabble is not allowed here,” Sage warned with a teasing glint in her eye, “but you’re right and don’t go mentioning my actual age and all that hoopla. It’s why I have this image and I happen to like it.”

Gari was chortling by now and he gasped, “And I’d rather you not change Mule. Don’t worry you’re secret is safe with me. But really I did come by to see how you were doing. I was worried that you hadn’t been sending me emails or letters regularly and thought that you might have lost my address.”

Sage smiled in response. It was like Gari to be diligent about her. They did look after each other in school. She protected him from the jocks when they went after him for being bisexual. He protected her from those guys that tried to get cute with her. Boy they were surprised and word got back to the jocks that Gari was a tough guy. Most of them backed down but occasionally a few would try to take a shot at him.

They stayed in touch when they went their separate ways. On a vacation trip out to Vegas, he revealed that he was in love and needed her help. She thought it was a guy at first by then she found out that it was a girl and not just any girl but _the_ girl. So she worked it out that Gari and Lily went out and that went down its own path and now Gari was married. Looking at her old friend, she replied, “I didn’t lose it, Nag. I just jumped in and I figured you were busy with your practice. I did some research on the internet.”

“As if I wouldn’t have time for you.”

“You’re the one having the baby. How do you think that happened?” Sage knew that Gari would drop everything at the drop of a hat if he thought that she needed some help.

“I don’t need a biology lesson from you Sage. I remember the Genetics and Society class we both took. I think you gave the professor a heart attack.” Gari sobered after making his joke and studied her. She looked good and he could see that she was in her element here. “Still it’s nice to see that you’re okay.”

“Well now you know so tell me how did you know I was here?”

“Please. You love your forensics and science so much that if it were tangible you would have married it,” Gari replied with a smirk on his face. He always found it strange that his favorite girl chose the degrees she did when it was so clear that she loved the hard sciences, particularly biology and chemistry but that was the Sage he knew. Her reasons were her own and for someone who listened to other people, it was paradoxical that she didn’t want people to listen to her problems. “I actually called Metro to leave a message but they said you didn’t work there anymore.”

“Let me guess, they gave you the runaround?”

“More or less. I called your dad and he told me you moved to Vegas. From there it wasn’t too hard to figure out that you would be working for the crime lab.”

“I could have made use of that degree we both share,” Sage pointed out in a teasing voice.

“And we both know that you got it just to make it seem like you’re normal,” Gari teased back. “Well your brand of normal. Anyway you always had a thing for crime scene investigation. You would have found a way to get in.”

“That and my super sought me out. You passed him on the way out.”

Gari raised his brow. He had noticed Grissom walking past them deep in thought. “That one? So you found your long lost twin?”

“No,” Sage retorted with a slight grin on her face. “He follows the evidence like the rest of the team does. Grissom’s good and he’s an entomologist… studies bugs.”

“Figures since you like bugs. Are you sure you’re not a boy in disguise?”

There were no qualms about teasing each other about their gender or sexuality. For Gari it was someone who accepted him completely, no strings attached. For Sage it was a friend who didn’t judge because she preferred things that were traditional male oriented. They shared a laugh at the old joke they used to throw around and Sage felt better about the recent thing that happened at Homicide. She looked at her old friend and said, “It’s good to see you Gari. It really is and I hope we can do some of the things we used to do.”

“Sure Sage,” Gari replied, “You’re my best friend.”

“So you wanna hear about my latest debacle?”

“Only if you have the time.”

Sage chuckled knowing she didn’t have a whole lot of time. Still she gave Gari the rundown without divulging details of the case. Gari was well aware of that general rule and didn’t ask much but listened and they talked until Sage said she had to go since it was evident something clicked in her head and she was anxious to find out.


	5. Chapter 5

“There you are. They said you got back but you weren’t in the lab.”

Sage looked at Catherine as the woman looked at her like a worried mother would. It was appreciated in terms of the concern but it did feel like being a teenager again. “I was busy and I was also looking for you earlier Cath.”

Catherine raised her brow just a bit. When Sage gave that slight smile of hers, she realized that she was being played. “Okay. I was busy myself.”

“Right 419,” Sage pointed out, taking everything in good humor. Gari’s impromptu visit helped a bit. She had been back on her way in to track down Grissom with something she remembered that she had noticed on Valenti’s body while he and the doc were discussing COD. “How’s that going for you?”

“Got something to go on but I am wondering if you have something for me,” Catherine replied.

“I might,” Sage replied. She wasn’t trying to tease the older woman but trying to convey that she would rather have this discussion in private.

Catherine didn’t get it at first. “Is this going to be a favor for a favor thing?”

“No.”

“So? Do you have something or not?”

Sage knew she was going to have to work on this. “Walk with me please.”

Catherine understood that the younger CSI had something for her but she wasn’t willing to spill it out in the open. It was a little unusual but she did notice the younger CSI had a thing for keeping conversations within the people that were relevant to the discussion when it involved evidence and the like. She complied and walked with Sage through the halls, “So gimme.”

Sage gave a slight eye roll in the direction consistent with recalling information and replied, “Well it is a disorder that is actually uncommon. It arises from the child’s failure to form normal attachments to primary caregivers in early childhood. This kind of thing can be a result from severe early experiences of neglect, abuse, abrupt separation from primary caregiver, a constant changing of primary caregivers or lack of a caregiver’s response to a child’s communication efforts.”

Catherine frowned a bit as she heard it. “Sounds like something that is what we find with kids from broken homes.”

“Well kids with his kind of disorder have severely disturbed internal working models of the relationship like between mother and child that can have an effect on interpersonal relationships and can lead to behavioral difficulties later in life.” Sage tried to make sure she wasn’t talking too clinical. It wasn’t too hard since they all had to do that for court.

“Great.”

Sage understood that comment and countered, “Hey, I think the only thing you would have to worry about with Lindsey is when the potential boyfriends line up. I think there is nothing to worry about on that end.”

“Just hearing it makes me squirm.”

“I think it’s because no one wants to hear that their kid may be different from… what is generally considered normal.” Sage made a slight swallow as she glanced around remembering that day that had Daddy proud and Mama worried when they were talking to the assessment coordinator.

Catherine noticed Sage looking off and sensed a story there but didn’t push. Instead she asked, “So how do you know if the kid has this disorder?”

Sage was brought back into focus and looked at Catherine. “Well, there are two common signs that are often present. One is indiscriminate and excessive attempts to receive comfort or any kind of acknowledgement from any available adult including strangers, which to me sounds a little bit…” Sage made a motion with her hand. “The other is extreme reluctance to initiate or accept comfort and affection with familiar adults especially when distressed. Does that help out?”

“A bit,” Catherine replied. “Anything else?”

“You really meant for me to go to town on this huh?” Sage eyed the older woman a bit wondering where this was heading. True Catherine had asked for help but generally most people stopped at signs and symptoms. “What gives?”

Catherine saw the look. Sage was willing to help but she wasn’t going to perform unless there was a purpose behind it. The fact she hadn’t asked before indicated that she was well aware of the fact that it had to do with a case. Catherine wanted the details more as a means to understand the victim as well as have some footing in regards to Dr. Sapien. “Our 419 was a nineteen year old. He had been seeing his therapist when, according to her, he had a grand mal seizure and hit his head. She said that she had been treating him for reactive attachment disorder and that he had issues with his mother.”

“Well there are a number of childhood mental health problems that are based on genetics but for your victim, RAD, the shorthand version, is based on a problematic history of health care and social relationships. That would be the relationship between the kid and his mother,” Sage pointed out, “And that is from my first glance at the material. I should warn you though that this is not as research and the most poorly understood disorder. A lot of the symptoms mimic other disorders.”

“So it could be that my victim would not have had this RAD?” Catherine gave a piercing glance at Sage.

Sage gave a slight shrug and rotated her left shoulder. “It shares symptoms with conduct disorders, social phobias, anxiety, PTSD… It’s why that a comprehensive and careful diagnostic evaluation must be given by a mental health professional with particular training in differential diagnosis. Did you consider the kid’s family life?”

Catherine listened to what Sage gave her. It certainly gave the idea to look in the direction of Dylan’s home life. Even though he died at his therapist’s home, there were other factors to consider. The shrink did say that Dylan needed to unload after having an argument with his mother.

Sage watched as Catherine thought about what she had said. She still had no idea how it could bear relevance or she just didn’t see it yet but she knew that Catherine knew what she was doing. “So… um anything else you need?”

“Not at the moment but you did give something to think about. Thanks Parker.”

“You’re welcome?” Sage frowned a little in confusion.

Catherine gave a smile and said, “Really, thanks for the quick lesson. Oh will you be around in case I need you further?”

“Um… I guess.”

“Good. Thanks again,” and Catherine turned and left to go work her case.

“Alright,” Sage replied as she watched Catherine leave. She was aware she was still frowning. She still didn’t quite get what Catherine wanted with all that but she figured that whatever the older CSI was after, she got it. She wasn’t going to say anything about it.

Greg happened to walk by while she was still there and he paused. He leaned in close and said, “You look like you’re ready to kick some invisible ass.”

“I know,” Sage replied as she broke out of her gaze. She turned to look at Greg as he started to walk away. “Do you ever get the feeling that even though you are there that you missed something?”

“All the time,” Greg replied with a grin on his face as he turned to face her. “You know sometimes the answer isn’t always obvious.”

“Oh thank you very much,” Sage replied with a sarcastic look on her face.

Greg was still grinning but said, “I get those days too. Most everybody does. Sometimes it doesn’t matter. Let it go.”

Sage gave a smile. He was right about that. “Thanks Greg. Go back to being the busy beaver.”

“Will do and don’t forget to drop by. It gets lonely in the lab.”

Sage took in the slight pouty look complete with puppy eyes. She couldn’t help but chuckle at that. It was hardly ever lonely in the lab but it was nice to know that he valued her company. “Oh scat Greggo.”

Greg was smiling as he turned around to go back to his DNA lab. It wasn’t lonely in the lab but it was always fun even when they worked in silence. He went about his work, making sure that things were processing as they should and writing his reports. He had stuff ready for Catherine and Nick and awaited their arrival.

They arrived without fail and it was Catherine who said, “What do ya got Greg?”

Greg was in his element and decided to give a pop quiz, “Cheese. Milk. Sweaters.” He paced back and forth as he said each word and paused to let each one sink in. “What do these things have in common?” He turned to look at the CSIs expectantly.

Catherine knew two and replied, “Goat cheese, goat milk.”

“Goat… sweaters?” Nick offered that last one tentatively.

“Angora,” Catherine gave the answer.

Greg mimicked the buzzing for the correct answer. He picked up the report he had and handed it over. “Fibers from the lady shrink, fibers from the boy. Both are angora.”

Nick asked, “Angora is processed goat hair?”

Greg nodded in the affirmative while Catherine confirmed, “Sheared, washed, spun and dyed. Angora’s 100% goat.” She handed the report to Nick so he could take a look. She teased him in the processed, “You didn’t know that, Nick?”

Nick watched as Catherine left trying to hide the bit of embarrassment. He looked at Greg and shrugged his shoulders, “Must be a chick thing.”

Greg laughed at that, “Nah it’s a styling thing.”

“Right because you perfected it,” Nick retorted with a slight smile on his face.

“Hey can I help it if I look good?” Greg went back to work on some other samples but he still had some attention drawn towards Nick.

“Come on you didn’t know that about angora.”

“My job, man,” Greg replied. He glanced at Nick and asked, “So any luck on what you’ve gotten yourself into for bowling night?”

“Eh don’t even,” Nick warned. “I know that story was your concoction.”

“Not me,” Greg replied holding his hands up in surrender. “I merely suggested the challenge. Story was her own.”

“Nah, it was you. You both are as thick as thieves,” Nick replied as he narrowed his eyes in a joking manner. “Besides… she wouldn’t budge.”

Greg clapped his hands, “I knew it. You tried the worst way possible didn’t ya? Not gonna work unless you bribe the right people.” He was chuckling like it was a really good joke.

“Bribery?” Nick was skeptical at that idea.

“Yeah. There are ways to get what you want but you just gotta have the connections,” Greg replied with a knowing look on his face, his tone indicated that he knew something that Nick didn’t. “Means everything.”

“Now you’re talking like the sheriff.”

“Just saying that there is a modicum of truth in that,” Greg offered, “You’d be surprised at what you can find out… like that a certain ex now turned friend of hers came visiting.” It wasn’t true but Greg was just offering possibilities what Nick made out of it was his own problem though it would be fun to watch to see what he did with it.

Nick thought about it some as he looked down at what he had been reading. Greg was the best source because they were friends but then again she might expect that… and how did Greg know that was an ex of hers? “What do you know?”

“Nothing since I’m assuming that she would guess you would come to me.” Greg felt glee that Nick was taking the bait. He would help Nick out a little but not too much.

“Then what help are you?”

“Hey chill out man. She won’t tell me but maybe she might tell someone say Bobby or Archie and most definitely Mandy.”

Nick frowned in suspicion. “No way. You lab rats are like a union or something. You wouldn’t spill so easily.”

“Up to you. We talk and we share but never gossip.” Greg gave the scout’s honor salute. “Trust me man, I can find something out.”

Nick thought about it some more. He figured that might have been the case when it came to her finding out about what he was teasing her with. He narrowed his eyes suspiciously, “What do you want in return?”

“Just helping you out.” Greg looked back at Nick and found himself in that stare. It wasn’t intimidating but he knew that the Texan would end up demanding answers. “That and maybe we can do a rematch sometime and this time you try to keep it from her.”

“You get such a kick out of this don’t you?”

“What I do.”

“You need help.”

“Already got it,” Greg replied with a grin. He knew Nick was going to cave. That Nick could give and hold his own was not in question. It was a matter of deciphering that which made a certain individual who was not always predictable.

“I don’t know why I’m even considering this,” Nick said after he shook his head in exasperation.

“Because you have wisdom beyond your years,” Greg replied with that charming smile.

Nick made a slight face. He was certain that this was going to backfire on him at some point but… “Alright. How will this work?”

****

Doc Robbins was ready to close up shop when he received a surprise visitor. Actually he received two surprise visitors. He checked to make sure everything was in place and then exited giving a huge yawn. He was turning the key to lock the door when he was approached by two people each exhibiting their own version of excitement.

“I need to see the body again.”

“Was the body jaundiced?”

Doc Robbins turned to looked at Grissom and Sage. He looked at Grissom since he had spoken first even though they were roughly speaking at the same time. “No can do. Released it six hours ago.” He turned to Sage frowning, “What do you mean by that?”

Sage motioned towards Grissom and said, “Boss first.”

Grissom gave a look. He had to admit that he was puzzled by her request. He looked back at the doctor and asked, “Final report?”

“Another twenty-four but there’s nothing in there to support Valenti was electrocuted,” Doc Robbins replied looking at Grissom. He glanced at Sage who was standing there like a child waiting patiently to be acknowledged. Her request was even stranger than Grissom’s but in the end they were more likely on the same page but just different lines.

“Doc, please?” Sage asked the question softly.

“You want to look at my notes?” The question was directed mostly at Grissom but Doc Robbins looked at the pair of them. At the expression mostly on Grissom’s face, he turned and unlocked the doors. Nothing wrong with a little overtime.

Grissom and Sage followed the coroner in and Grissom asked, “Why are you asking about jaundice?”

“Something I noticed while you were discussing the finer points of electrocution cases,” Sage replied as she watched Doc Robbins access the file and pull up his notes. “I’m no pathologist but I noticed some yellowing of the skin but of course it could be a postmortem thing. When I saw it I got to thinking and did some research about it but nothing came out at me then.”

Grissom nodded as Doc Robbins finished pulling up the file. He wasn’t ignoring her but considering something. “So what have you got? I mean anything unusual, even the mundane.”

Doc Robbins flipped through the file and read, “His troponin enzymes are elevated.”

“Troponin levels become elevated following ventricular fibrillation which could be caused by electrocution right?” Grissom glanced at the coroner.

“Sure, but troponin’s found in all victims of cardiac arrest, most of whom have _not_ been zapped.” Robbins looked at Grissom with a firm look. It looked like this was going to be another battle.

“But like I pointed out earlier, Doc. Every so often there is a strange and unusual,” Sage offered quietly as she paced and looked at the drawers that held the bodies.

Grissom cast a look at the doc, “Can you work with me, please?”

Doc Robbins made a slight sigh as he continued on with his notes, “Ah vic also had an elevated concentration of iron in his blood—six, seven times normal.”

“Life threatening?” The wheels started turning in Grissom’s mind as he thought about Sage’s request.

“No.” Doc Robbins was humoring Grissom with this. He was certain that there was nothing to support electrocution. He glanced at Sage who appeared to be thinking but was staring at the wall with the cubbies for the bodies that were to be processed. He was curious at where this was going but it was getting to be a bit annoying.

“Anything else?”

“Well it fits the bill of mundane and what you were asking about Parker. His skin looked jaundiced,” Robbins explained.

Grissom was about to quickly dismiss it, “Postmortem deoxygenation.”

Doc Robbins took off his glasses as he replied, “Dead or alive, your vic’s epidermis is yellow.”

Sage had stopped pacing and had come to stand by Grissom and look down at the notes. She remembered a few things from reading the articles regarding about jaundiced skin. She looked at Grissom and at the same time they both said, “Tell us about his testicles.”

Doc Robbins looked at the pair of them like they were both insane. From Grissom it was more or less expected since that was Grissom. To hear a request like that from Sage… that was a double take. She made him laugh the first time they met when she took her evidence and left him with Nick and their body. Since then, she was serious and a few chuckling moments but other than that this… was unexpected. His response was, “What?”

They both looked at Doc Robbins and he surrendered, “Okay, I’m working with you.” He thought about it and replied, “Uh, I don’t remember. I mean genetics can be fascinating and there are things I take note of but I didn’t focus on his genitals.”

Sage was willing to accept that. It’s not like it was a common thing to look at. Looking at it now, it did sound funny that she even made the request the same time Grissom did. She gave a slight smile and a nod and left. Grissom remained behind and gave his own smile, “Thanks Doc.”

“You’re welcome,” Doc Robbins replied as he put the file away. That was fairly interesting.

Sage was waiting for Grissom outside autopsy and spent the walk back to the lab keeping step. She said, “I think we gave Doc something to think on.”

“More likely you did,” Grissom replied, “It seems to be expected of me.”

Sage couldn’t help but chuckle at that. It was funny now that she thought of it. “Indeed.”

“How did you know that jaundiced skin had something to do with it?”

Sage thought about it some. “Well I noticed it when we were viewing the body. It seemed a bit unusual to me but like I said before I’m not pathologist. When Doc mentioned the high levels of iron… something clicked from my readings earlier: iron overload.”

“And you got this from the jaundiced skin?”

“I was curious and it just seemed important at the time,” Sage replied with a slight shrug of her shoulders. “Now that we know Valenti had high levels of iron in his blood, I am certain you have an idea of what happened.”

“You would be correct in that,” Grissom replied with that boyish smile he gave. “It seems you might be onto something as well. What did you find on your research?”

“With iron overload there are symptoms. The jaundiced skin is one. There are also joint pains, performance issues and in particular the genitalia are…” Sage made a slight wavy motion with her hand. Even though she had no problem asking the blunt question to the coroner, explaining it in front of people… she reverted to what Cassie called her prudish air. “Most cases it is genetics.”

“Very impressive.”

“Good memory,” Sage offered by way of explanation. It sufficed and they finished their walk back to the lab with Grissom explaining what they were going to do.

They came across Sara, Warrick and Greg in the break room and immediately Grissom asked, “What’re you guys doing?”

Sara responded, “Waiting for an assignment. You got a new case for us?”

“A new case?”

“We hear the sheriff put the brakes on the investigation,” Warrick explained. He caught the slight look on Sage’s face and guessed that this wasn’t going to end well.

“You didn’t hear that from me, did you?” Grissom looked at his CSIs with a stern expression.

Everyone in the room felt it. While Sage didn’t technically do anything wrong, she felt like Sara and Warrick did. It was going to be a long set of hours as Grissom rattled off jobs to do.


	6. Chapter 6

“If I let you see them I have to let everybody see them and I’m not even sure that she should be looking at them.”

Sage raised her brow at the mortician’s comment. It wasn’t a sexist thing… she knew that. It was respect for the dead and the rest of that which was the reason for the protest. She offered, “If modesty is an issue I can wait outside.”

Warrick stifled the snicker that rose. The feelings of being berated were lessened. It had begun when they drove to the place. Warrick managed to take a peek since she was sitting in the back. Her hands were folding in her lap like she was at a tea party. He felt his eyes widen when she spoke to Grissom, “I guess we need the little hat now.”

It was a surprised Warrick when Grissom replied, “Maybe if you decide to change careers or moonlight.”

Warrick said nothing about it but did manage to whisper when they followed Grissom in, “Are you crazy?”

“Just a joke that I made when I drove us to the site,” Sage explained.

Warrick accepted that since he wasn’t sure if he wanted to know the details about that one at all. Now they were trying to get a look at their dead guy’s testicles and she was offering to be modest about it. This, coming from the girl who faced the blood and guts and decomps fearlessly. He glanced at her to see what she truly thought.

Sage gave Warrick a look that said she wasn’t bothered at all by getting a view. Her expression was also mingled with something that said that she was a bit embarrassed by the idea of taking a look. Even though she was a scientist and had seen things that would have normal people running and screaming, she still balked at a few things when she stopped to think about it. Some things were a given that she wasn’t going to make the effort to even try, like her fears.

“Thank you for your discretion,” the mortician said, “But perhaps we can work something out.”

Warrick couldn’t believe this guy, “What? Do yo want us to _pay_ to see them?”

“Talk about freak show,” Sage muttered under her breath.

Grissom had grabbed a set of gloves and turned to hand a set to Sage. She may have offered to leave and wait but she was in on this with him. He listened while the mortician explained that he was starting a business in crime scene clean ups. Apparently he wanted some referrals. Grissom shot a look at Warrick and heard Sage mutter something that he was certain was in French. He looked at the mortician and said, “I’ll put you on the list.”

Sage felt for Warrick when she saw him flinch at the sight of Valenti’s testicles. It was a symptom of iron overload and what she had implied to Grissom when she became a prude in her explanation. Performance issues was code for testicular atrophy; they were the size of peas… rather wrinkly peas. She wrinkled her nose slightly while Grissom did the talking.

“Poor guy,” the mortician replied.

“Yeah that’s rough,” Warrick added feeling very uncomfortable with this. He looked at Sage and noted the look on her face and got the impression that she was just as uncomfortable as he was and yet she was jumping in with two feet. He looked at Grissom, “And the significance of this evidence?”

“Hemochromatosis,” Grissom explained while Sage backed off looking a little relieved that he had covered Valenti back up.

“It’s a genetic thing,” Sage added, “Valenti had elevated levels of iron in his blood.”

“Yellow pallor, shrunken testicles,” Grissom continued.

“Probably joint pain.”

Grissom looked at Sage who was looking better now that the boy was covered up. He almost wanted to laugh but he was focused on the case. “I think he’s been ingesting trace amounts of iron over a long period of time.”

“Why did he eat iron?” The mortician looked at the CSIs and the body with a curious expression.

“Trace amounts are odorless, tasteless,” Warrick explained, “He probably didn’t even know it.”

“And we ingest iron anyway. It is an essential mineral for the human body to function and we get it mostly from our diet and I don’t think he would overload on iron supplements,” Sage added as she pulled off her gloves.

“So are you saying that he was poisoned?”

“No,” Grissom answered, “Iron molecules take a long time to build up. Could have been his diet, repeated blood transfusions, excessive smoking… possibly hereditary abnormalities.”

“So where does this get us?” Warrick had to ask the question. They needed the relevance in this and he was certain that Grissom was sticking to the fact that Valenti was electrocuted.

“One step closer,” Grissom replied. He then looked at the mortician, “Mr. Gesek? Stick a syringe in his carotid all the way to his clavicle.”

Warrick knew what he was after, “You want his blood?”

“One pint, to go.”

It was short work getting the pint of blood from Valenti. Once they got back from the lab Sage took off leaving behind a bemused Grissom and a frowning Warrick. Grissom told Warrick to prep it in plastic and Warrick was astute enough to not ask and went to do what he was told. On the way he did find it a bit funny about Sage’s reaction at the mortuary.

****

“I don’t know Greg. I mean I can handle decomps like it was nothing but when I stop to think about… that…”

“You turn into a prude.”

“Thank you,” Sage replied with one of those sweet and polite smiles. “You know my sister calls it my prudish air and not in a complimentary way.”

“Well I think it shows guys that you are normal in a sort of way,” Greg replied as he finished his work. “Not that a real man wouldn’t mind. He would probably find it amusing.”

“Yeah well laugh it up. I expect it of my favorite lab rat.” Sage smiled as she said it as she leaned against the counter of the DNA lab. She actively sought out to look at the equipment and made sure that whatever wasn’t in use was properly turned off.

“Cause we’re cool right?” Greg couldn’t help but smile along with her. He personally thought it was something new to the Southern girl who was a wizard in the lab and he rather liked it. The way he saw it, everybody should have a little quirk or something. He was the weird one in the lab and he had stories to tell.

“Definitely,” Sage replied in agreement. She felt better now to go back to work. She was in on this with Grissom and wouldn’t mind a chewing out from Mobley in regards to the overtime. “You’re a good friend Greggo.”

“Like you said, we’re good.” Greg paused in his work to study Sage. “Did I ever tell you about some of the weird stuff I did before you came along?”

“I think Mandy mentioned something about a headdress of a burlesque dancer or something. She was an icon in her day,” Sage replied as she tried to recall what she had heard.

“Portia Richmond. That was a bit of a doozy in the case. Anyway I did what I needed and decided to have some fun with it. I tell you I was smoking.”

“Not to mention a stern look from Cath and Grissom,” Sage added with a slight smile. “I would have loved to have seen that dance.” She sighed and took a breath, “Thanks Greg. I better go see what the boss needs and I just might learn something.”

“We all have our quirks Sage.”

“Oh I know. This one is one that I definitely have a hard time breaking out of. Southern raised lady,” Sage offered by means of explanation. “Catch ya later.”

“No problem.”

Sage walked through the lab and found Grissom working on stripping wires for an apparatus he was building. She walked in and grabbed a pair of goggles and moved into a position to observe. She was quiet not wanting to be disruptive.

“Feeling better?”

“Quite a bit. Sorry about that.”

“Nothing wrong with that,” Grissom replied as he looked at the wires. He motioned to one and said, “Hand me that one please. I was surprised since you were blunt with Robbins in your question and then you shrank back in your explanation.”

Sage picked up the requested wire. She looked at the ends and fixed them so Grissom didn’t have to do too much work on that. “I stopped to think about it. It either becomes funny or I turn into a complete prude even though it is science.”

“Personal feelings can hinder.”

“I know that firsthand, Boss.” Sage fixed the light bulb to the structure. She checked to make sure the plug to the apparatus was ready to go. “Funny thing is I can handle decomp and autopsy but some things just still have an effect. Goes to my upbringing.”

“How you are raised plays into who you are.”

“As well as choices,” Sage finished. She glanced at Grissom and added, “Sometimes the leopard can change its spots. Often it comes down to choice.”

She wasn’t sure why she said that but Sage thought that it was worth the effort. It wasn’t too important and it felt more like it was something to say. Finished with that, she looked at the apparatus and gave a slight sigh, “So… I’m guessing the reason you had Warrick package Valenti’s blood has to do with this little experiment. Testing for conductivity?”

“Sometimes I wonder if you and Sara are cut from the same mold,” Grissom replied. He looked up at Sage and gave a slight smile. “You seem to figure things out quickly.”

“Not always. I’m just thinking about the case. I think he was electrocuted and because physical evidence says otherwise, we need to show that it is possible that something that is supposed to be there isn’t.” Sage leaned on the table and propped her elbows on his. Her head rested on her hands much like a little girl would who was trying to be cute about things. “The main clue was in the fact that there was excess iron and we explored further with the nether regions of Valenti and the blood is just a little more to prove electrocution. Classic scientific method.”

“And naturally you record and…”

“Very funny Boss.” Sage was grinning at the implications. “Then again I guess the less chicken scratch, the better.” She couldn’t help but chuckle since this was Grissom’s lead and she was just following orders. It reminded her something her father once said about orders.

“As I said before, you have lovely handwriting.”

“And that is because of penmanship class,” Sage replied, “And no matter how hard I tried, I just can’t make it look like everyone else’s.” She sighed in mock exasperation as she picked up the notes and made notations for Grissom. “So al that is needed is the blood.”

At that moment Warrick came in with the blood, packaged in plastic as Grissom ordered. He acknowledged Sage’s presence with a nod and she did the same as she wrote in the notes. Grissom was grinning happily. Sage thought he looked like a schoolboy that was just given a free pass to blow up the science lab. Time for the demonstration.

****

“Bob Harris’ prints were not on the murder weapon,” Mobley was going on. “Is that what you’re telling me?”

Sage tried to look small because from the looks of things, this wasn’t going to end well. As it turned out Grissom’s demonstrations with the pickle and the electrodes and Valenti’s blood proved electrocution. As it turned out the excess iron in Vatenti’s blood offered no resistance to electricity. As Warrick pointed out, the victim was one wire flowing from the drill, through Valenti and out through the nail in his boot.

Since Valenti had offered no resistance, there were no burn marks. Yet he was still electrocuted. So in essence they proved electrocution and got the scenario for murder. The suspect though wasn’t the right one. The nail found in the boot came back with a partial print thanks to Sara. The problem was that the print wasn’t a match to Bob Harris.

The more Sage thought about it, the more she was convinced that maybe they had been looking at the wrong person. While there were instances where someone whose prints were a common occurrence around the scene ended up being the one to be behind murder, this didn’t seem right. Besides Sara looked at tool striations and the ones made by the cutters Grissom collected didn’t match what was on the grounding prong. So it looked like they were back to square one and now they had to talk to the sheriff.

Sage looked at the sheriff as Grissom said, “They were not on the nail. You see, I think that someone stuck a nail in the victim’s boot and it evidently wasn’t Bob Harris.”

“In other words, you made a suspect out of an innocent man.”

Sage looked at the sheriff and said, “That wasn’t the intention sir…”

“Oh good,” Mobley interrupted as he started to walk away knowing that Grissom and Sage would follow. “Then maybe one of you’ll want to bring that up in the newspaper article.”

“What are you talking about?” Grissom frowned at that, not certain where this was going. “What newspaper article?”

Mobley paused from walking away and turned to face Grissom. He glanced at Sage who had followed at a slower pace. “The one I’m arranging for your public apology, either yours or Parker’s.”

“I’m not making an apology,” Grissom shot back thinking that the whole thing was a bit of a farce. In his view he followed the evidence. Initially it led to Bob Harris with the cutters and his palm print on it and with nothing else at the scene… It was logical assessment. “And neither is Parker.”

“Oh yes you are… at least one of you is,” Mobley replied. “You don’t go after a friend of mine, sully his reputation and then walk away.”

Sage raised her brow at that. She was in the same mindset as Grissom. They had done what they would do to other suspects that fell onto their radar in other cases. They followed the evidence, got the initial suspect and did whatever they did which usually was thorough investigation and questioning by the PD and process the rest of the evidence. Sometimes it did ruin the reputation and while bad, they kept moving forward. It was a downside but then again people did have things to hide and would do whatever they had to do just to keep it hidden and sometimes that made it worse.

Looking at the sheriff, she said, “Sir, begging your pardon but what you just described is what we do with any suspect that comes under our purview. In all honesty what makes Mr. Harris any different from the other suspects? Because he’s your friend? Sounds like a different picture to me… sir.”

Mobley looked at Sage and then at Grissom. There was that… quirk of Sage Parker’s reputation that he had heard so much of and it seemed that it was being used on him. “Actions have consequences Gil. Even yours. Now one or the other or both will be giving an apology.”

“As I said before, paints a different picture sir.”

Grissom glanced at Sage who was looking at the sheriff. He recognized the signs of defiance and stepped in to stem it, “Sage.”

“And you know just as well about the consequences of actions, Parker. In fact you should know that very well… at least the last case you worked on.”

“I know exactly what you mean sir,” Sage replied, “And your article is premature.”

Grissom put a hand on her shoulder to stop her. It didn’t stop the sheriff taking a few steps forward towards her. He scrutinized Sage and said, “And you know full well what happens in cases like this. I would hate to see a good thing end.”

Sage said nothing else but let Mobley walk away. She was aware that her fingers were flexing and releasing in a fist. She knew she overstepped her bounds. It was like she had taken more than a step backwards when she came to Vegas. It was like being a rookie all over again; she completely forgot how to be ‘diplomatic’ like she had to when she was a supervisor. She looked down and said, “Sorry about that Boss. I’ll just… I’ll just go take a break.”

Grissom watched Sage leave. He frowned at the whole situation. He wasn’t looking forward to doing any type of apology for a newspaper article and he wasn’t going to let Sage do it though probably now Mobley was going to insist. They had followed the evidence and it led to a suspect. More evidence showed up and they found their suspect may not have done it but he had an idea of who might be their killer.

He left Homicide knowing that Sage would find a way back or she was already back. He did leave her a message saying that he had another suspect in mind but he needed to check a few things. He headed back to the lab and went straight into his office. He had noticed that Sage hadn’t come back yet and he felt concern edge in. There was no message saying that she was in or out or what.

He sat as his desk going over union workers for the construction but this time electricians. Since it wasn’t Bob Harris’ print on the nail, it started him thinking. He recalled the impromptu visit from Ian Wolf and then the way how the drill was tampered. He ran through the electricians and found Ian Wolf’s name on the list. That led him to make a few calls.

“I heard the sheriff chewed you a new one.”

Grissom looked up to see Brass peeking into his office. “You got my message?”

“Yeah you want me to check out your ‘Deep Throat’?” Brass came into the office. “Or did you want me to find your missing CSI, which I found by the way and gave a lift back.” He mentioned it like it was no big deal on his end. It really wasn’t since he liked Sage in a way he couldn’t describe but if he had to put a finger on it, it would have to do with why he transferred from Jersey.

Grissom looked at Brass with a look of gratitude, “Thanks Brass.”

“Don’t mention it. I think that was a more quiet ride than when I go solo,” Brass commented. “I think the sheriff got to her.”

Grissom made a slight hum of acknowledgement at that. He didn’t deny or confirm that was the case. Whatever it was, Sage was going to have to deal on her own. Even though it was three months almost four into her probation period, it seemed that there was a bit of period of adjustment. Instead he took out the sheet he printed and handed it to Brass.

“Well that was fast,” Brass said as he accepted the sheet.

Grissom folded his hands. “Ian Wolf. Union of Electrical Workers, Local 37. He wanted to make sure that I stayed on Harris for the murder of Roger Valenti.”

Brass gave a sort of sleepy look at Grissom as he asked, “Doesn’t _that_ tell you something?”

“I told him to talk to you,” Grissom replied, pointing at Brass. He turned to something else before adding, “Thanks for bringing Sage back. I wasn’t sure if she got my message.”

“She did and had this idea about taking the bus,” Brass replied with a slight frown but was rather amused by it. “I guess it was luck or coincidence that I happened to come across her when I got your message.”

“There are no coincidences Jim,” Grissom replied.

“Maybe not.” Brass looked at Grissom for a moment. He then turned and started to leave. “I’ll check out the guy.” He paused at the door and turned back to look at Grissom. “Gil, why do you do this to yourself?”

“What?”

“The guy’s dead. It could have been suicide, accident. But you always got to push it… And it looks like your newest disciple is pushing it with you.” Brass looked at Grissom from his position. The CSI was at work looking at a file. It was a wonder they were able to have this conversation but Brass was used to it. Sometimes he actually enjoyed it and Brass had developed a healthy respect for Grissom even when they had differences of opinion.

“Just like any other case,” Grissom replied not looking up.

“You know what I think? Adrenaline. You need the rush. Probably what got by for Parker and now… But that’s just me,” Brass said as he shrugged his shoulders. He left Grissom frowning where he sat. It was a mystery as to why Grissom butted heads with the sheriff or would get _that_ persistent over a case.

In the hall, he bumped into Sage. She was looking better than when he saw her in Homicide. She had been talking to O’ Riley when he came across her and wondered why she wasn’t back at the crime lab. He had met her on a case a few times and noted her to be a mixture of Grissom and Sara but when she and Sara were put together, they were like two kids trying to up the other. He liked her polite manner but he also saw that she was a determined woman. He remembered the case with the kids that had been kidnapped.

Sage spotted him, “Hey Brass, thanks for bringing me back.”

“It’s no problem Parker,” Brass replied. “Don’t worry about the sheriff chewing you out. I think everyone’s been chewed out at least once by him.”

“Oh not that,” Sage replied with a slight smile. “Just an eye opener.”

“Feel like a cup? I’m going to check on a guy,” Brass replied holding up the sheet with Ian Wolf’s picture on it.

“Need a hand looking?” Sage raised her brow while she was smiling at the detective. It sounded something to do and she didn’t have anything pending since she didn’t do much in this case except observe and talk and get in trouble with the sheriff.

Brass looked at Sage. He offered since it seemed that she looked a little down. It wouldn’t hurt. “Wouldn’t hurt to get a little old fashioned police work in you.”

“I don’t think so either,” Sage agreed. She liked the former Jersey detective. His blunt manner in certain things was rather refreshing.

“Well come on then.”


	7. Chapter 7

Nick squinted as he finished ordering his hot dog. He and Catherine were waiting for O’ Riley and the search warrant. They had O’ Riley running to get the warrant based upon the fibers found on the boy and the shrink’s sweater. Something was up and Nick felt it in his gut with this. He had been good about keeping it in check but…

Then there was the whole idea of having a shrink. Nick didn’t see the point of talking to a complete stranger about problems. Looking at Catherine, who was waiting, and Nick got to wondering what she thought of the whole thing. “Hey Catherine.”

“Yeah?”

Nick took his hot dog and put his condiments on it. He could almost hear Sage when they had hot dogs at Greg’s place. She called them indigestion on a bun but she ate them anyway citing that they were good indigestion on a bun. They had good laughs over that. It reminded him to ask how her case was going since he hadn’t seen her all shift really except once or twice it wasn’t really a conversation.

Focusing on what he wanted to ask, he asked Catherine, “You ever been in therapy?”

“Who hasn’t?” Catherine had been watching the traffic and then turned towards Nick. “Didn’t save my marriage.”

“And you were okay sharing your problems with a complete stranger?” Nick noticed that O’ Riley had pulled up. He kept his focus on Catherine though.

“You rather I tell them to you?”

Nick gave a look at that. It was tempting to ask about the conversations he had seen between her and Sage. Then again it was probably what they classify as girl talk and that was considered a different category altogether. He still couldn’t help but mutter, “And I bet you’d tell Parker.”

At that moment O’ Riley came up saying, “Somebody order a warrant?”

“Yeah,” Nick replied as he dug into his dog while the detective ordered his dog. “I hope it’s a general.”

The detective looked at the pair of CSIs as they chowed down on their dogs. “Epilepsy. Eyewitness physician dials 9-1-1. Coroner’s not making any noise. You’re lucky to get a limited.”

Nick couldn’t believe this. “What do mean we’re lucky? We’ve got fibers on a 14 year old kid _and_ the shrink’s clothing.”

“Which would have got you nothing,” O’ Riley replied firmly. He’d done this before. “But I did a background check on the good doctor. While back, she had her license suspended. Sex with a patient. Teen’s parents filed a complaint with the A.P.A.” He refrained from mentioning that Sage had pointed him in the right direction with certain things regarding the A.P.A. Mostly it was on terminology and stuff and some interesting facts that he thought were a little pointless but he let her ramble. She asked him not to say anything and he was okay with that.

Nick took another bite. That was a joke. “Sex with a minor.” He took the warrant and info. “Suspension’s a joke. Should have _lost_ her license minimum.” Nick didn’t like this one bit. That bad feeling he had been having all through the whole shift working this case… it was hitting full force at the implications that this was sending to his brain.

“Yeah well this time, maybe she will,” Catherine added, noting Nick’s indignation. She felt the same way about this. Even though she was a mom and would have liked to have been more vocal about it, even she knew that they didn’t have enough. Thinking about it, O’ Riley was right in that the fibers weren’t enough and that it was his persistence in the background check that got them the warrant.

Catherine’s concern though was Nick. He seemed to really be getting into the case and she was worried that he was going fast and furious and she was cruising behind. They needed to be on the same page if they were going to work and close this case.

Some time later found the CSIs and O’ Riley serving the warrant at Dr. Sapien’s residence. Nick was busy by the couch near where Dylan Buckley was found. Sapien looked at the warrant and was confused, “Angora fibers? What does that have to do with anything?”

Nick didn’t say anything but went to work looking for more fibers by the couch on the floor. He couldn’t trust himself to talk at the moment. The rate he could feel his heartbeat, he was surprised he hadn’t gone into arrhythmia or something like that. He felt like he wanted to snap at the lady shrink so he kept silent and tried to control the flood of emotions that were threatening.

Dr. Sapien didn’t like it and made it known, “Excuse me. I don’t appreciate being treated like a suspect.” She advanced towards Nick making her indignation very clear. She looked at the CSI and waited for an answer.

Nick didn’t look at her but continued to work. He heard her advance and he felt a sickening feeling that was different from before. It was like another time from a long time ago. He spoke tersely to the shrink more out of a need to ease what he was feeling, “Then maybe you should wait outside.”

“Do you consider me a suspect? Because that’s how I’m feeling.” Sapien looked as Nick continued to work, refusing to answer. “Fine. Don’t answer me. It’s your choice.” She started to walk past the CSI trying not to be too annoyed at this disruption.

Nick felt the muscles in his shoulders tense up. He swallowed as that sickening feeling increased. Even though there was a respectable distance, it really bothered Nick and her footsteps sounded really loud in his ears. “That’s the funny thing about choices. Once you make them, you have to live with them.” He glanced back but didn’t look at Sapien. He wasn’t ready to do that just yet and shook his head.

This case was really starting to bug him and he wasn’t sure if he could control the flood of emotions that was threatening to overload his good senses. “Dylan Buckley was just a boy.” Finally he stood up and faced Sapien. He felt disgusted with her. “He trusted you and you abused that trust.”

At that moment Catherine came out carrying evidence in a bag. It looked like a blanket of sorts. She made herself known after hearing that part of the conversation. She looked at then both and tapped with her gloved hand, “Linen closet, top shelf.”

It was better to ask the questions as they came to mind in course with the investigation. It kept the sick feeling in check for Nick. “Was that blanket here on the floor? Were you and Dylan under it?” It was better to come out and ask it.

The non-responsiveness of Dr. Sapien filled in the blanks for Nick. As he looked at the couch and the floor, he could see the scene play out. Dr. Sapien made her advances while Dylan was resisting. He could see her reassuring that it was going to be okay and then moving him into position. He could feel his throat convulse. “He was a 14 year old kid. What’s the matter with you?”

Catherine could fill in the blanks too. “He resisted; you persisted. Then what?”

Sapien looked at the CSIs that were looking at her like a criminal. “Look, I don’t know the basis of your allegations but I have never crossed the line with a patient.”

“That’s not what your rap sheet says,” Nick countered.

“Rap sheet?” Sapien looked at Nick like he was insane for such an accusation.

“Sex with an underage patient,” Catherine added for clarification.

Sapien couldn’t believe that they had dug into that. “I was a resident. He was 17. We were in… Look no criminal charges were filed. It should have been expunged from my record.”

Catherine shook her head at that, “It doesn’t make you any less guilty.”

Sapien looked at Catherine, “Lady, I’m not a saint but I’m not a killer or a child molester. Dylan Buckley was an epileptic. He had a seizure. He hit his head. That’s the truth. You don’t like it, you can leave.”

Nick listened to it and looked up at the ceiling. He didn’t believe a word of it. Something had been going on here at Sapien’s house and it wasn’t normal therapy. He was sure that it wasn’t any kind of therapy at all. “We got what we came here for.”

It was a slightly awkward moment. The damage had been done and it was the cue for the CSIs to leave. Nick collected his things and took the blanket from Catherine and walked out with a firm expression on his face. Catherine noticed it but kept quiet until they were outside of the suspect’s home, “What’s going on with you?”

“I’m on a case,” was all Nick could say.

“ _We’re_ on a case,” Catherine corrected.

“Right.”

Catherine looked at Nick. Something was going on about this case that was bothering him. She didn’t want to pull him off because he was good at what he did. Yet this was almost personal. She would keep an eye on Nick to make sure that nothing was wrong.

****

“Peanut butter and jelly?”

“Just a habit and comfort food,” Sage replied with a mouth full of food as she finished the last bite of her half of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

“Comfort food?” Brass looked at Sage as he pulled up back at the lab. They had spent the day looking into Ian Wolf. He found it strange that Grissom hadn’t called to find out where she was but he wasn’t going to make waves at that. “Whatever happened to chocolate since the sheriff chewed you a new one?”

Sage wiped her mouth on the napkin as she finished her sandwich. Spending time at homicide, looking up Ian Wolf proved to be enlightening in terms of detective work. Brass teased her about having her nose down a scope when she read more into Wolf’s bio. It was a good time well spent. “I prefer peanut butter.”

“You’re actually serious?”

Sage couldn’t help but chuckle. “You sound just like Stokes. He didn’t get it either. It’s just something that makes me feel better. Chocolate I’m not big into.” She crinkled up the napkin. “Thanks for letting me tag along Brass.” She got out of the Taurus and shut the door.

“You can call me Jim you know.”

Sage peeked through the open window on the passenger side. “I know.” She smiled to let Brass know that she knew it. “Just another old habit. I always use last names… no so much the professional end but more of the efficiency end of things.”

Brass looked at Sage leaning on the door. He could get that. He handed her the cup of ice tea that she got on the way there. Apparently the whole coffee thing was either a complete story or she was eccentric enough like Grissom to do a switch up when she felt like it. “Well you certainly know how to be polite.”

Sage accepted her tea, “Another thing but more to do with upbringing. Thanks Jim. I better go and see what else Grissom may have me do or get busy writing out an apology.”

“Alright. Hey Parker, it’ll be okay.”

Sage looked at the detective, “Yeah. It will. Thanks.”

Sage watched as Brass went to go back to Homicide and get to work more on the Ian Wolf lead. She took a glance at her watch and noted the time. Seemed like people were going to get dinged for the overtime so in essence, Brass was right in that things would be okay. She took a sip of her tea and walked into the lab. It was not a hard thing to do and she had drunk all her tea by the time she got to the break room and tossed her cup.

At that moment, she saw Nick walk by carrying a blanket wrapped in an evidence bag. She was used to the serious expressions he wore when he was on a case. This one though seemed a bit different. She was in two minds of following him. One was that she could be accused of being nosy and in truth that would exactly be what it was or two that she left it alone and things would work out. However, just the way he was carrying himself was different and she was… concerned. Most others didn’t seem to notice since they were going about their own work.

 _I’ll probably regret this_ , Sage thought to herself as she checked in with Grissom and found that there was nothing much to do that needed to be processed. Plus Brass was going to go pick up Ian Wolf for questioning. She wanted to opt out on that interview, citing a need to take a break.

It wasn’t a lie per se. She was going to go home for a few hours and get a few nods and winks. Besides there was the usual household chores she had to take care of at home. Plus it would buy some time to check up on Nick. He hadn’t even left a message relating to his attempts at pestering her about the night they set aside for bowling.

The real trick was to make it seem like any other time she would walk in. That was pretty much how it worked both ways. Of course the trick was that she wasn’t assigned to his case so there was no reason to come by except to talk. More likely she would be shot down for her troubles but… Nick was her partner, a friend, like Warrick and Sara. Besides he always asked her if something was wrong… and that sounded flimsy even to her own ears.

It was an inward debate as she walked through the hall carrying her beat up bag. It was known that she walked by the labs just to do a peek in and say hello. So she did that and gave a couple of comments before spotting Nick setting up the illuminated table with the blanket. It was now or never and the last thing as the internal debate waged was to go for it.

She walked by and gave a gentle knock to announce her presence, “Hey, trying to max out your overtime?”

“I’m on a case,” Nick replied as he took out the wooden skewers to make a grid out of the angora blanket. He had a pile of swabs nearby ready to be used. He wasn’t quite in the mood to talk to her and hoped that she would go away.

“Okay.” Sage eyed the pile of swabs and took a wild guess at what he was going to do. From what Catherine told her when she first approached her, she suspected molestation herself. Of course since she didn’t have the facts of the case, she couldn’t make a judgment. “Looks like it will keep you busy.”

“Yeah so… I’d like to get to it.”

Sage noticed Nick’s rigid posture. Maybe she should just go away. He wasn’t rude and he wasn’t being an ass like when they first met. She should leave it alone. She shifted to leave by hefting her bag higher on her shoulder and stopped, “Do you want a hand?”

Nick paused. He really didn’t want to talk and work which is what usually happened when they worked on evidence even though there were times that they worked in silence and it was actually companionable; they could work quietly and still enjoy each other’s company. Yet he was aware that he had missed her company in terms of their banter and he still hadn’t checked in with Greg about their sources.

The silence was enough for Sage. She understood that something about this case was bothering him. She would leave it alone. “Okay. Well I better go.”

Nick made a slight face and turned towards the door but she was gone. He went to the door and found she hadn’t gone far. As it turned out, Greg waylaid her and was talking to her about something and she looked like she was trying to get out.

Apparently it was a joke about something between them and they parted. Nick was about to call out to Sage when she turned and gave a wave good bye along with that grin of hers that indicated she had something up her sleeve or something. He could see that she was taking his response for what it was but it still didn’t make him feel better about his behavior towards her and he couldn’t run and chase after her since there was evidence lying out. He turned to go back in and work on it.

Sage in the meantime drove home. She didn’t take it personally and wasn’t going to pry. So she drove home to her condo with a rather aggressive air and revved the engine slightly before killing it. It was really mundane just picking up mail and flipping the switch on the timer for the water on her planters. She went around the back of the car when she saw and old friend and smiled, “Hey Padre. _Como estas?_ ”

“Good as usual _senorita_ Parker. I brought the wrench you needed. Do you need help?”

“No I got it,” Sage replied, “But thank you.” She took the wrench and was going to walk away when something else was handed to her. It was an envelope with elaborate designs on the edges. It looked out of place in the mechanic’s work worn hand. Sage raised her brow at it.

“My daughter. Her quinceañera is this weekend. We would like you to come,” Padre replied.

Sage looked at it and opened it. She studied the date and it was by sheer luck that it was her night off. She smiled at the man and said, “Thank you. I’ll be there.”

“No thank you. Sirena really looks up to you.”

Sage smiled at that since she thought that it was her mechanic’s way of showing his appreciation. She and his daughter Sirena got along pretty well. Even though they had only met once a year before her moving out, there were still the letters and pictures. She nodded and reassured the man that she would come.

Her condo provided welcome as she put her keys in the dish she kept by the door. She read the invitation and almost flinched since her Spanish was bad and she was fluent in French! Still she could make out the date and time and even if it wasn’t her night off, she could go to the ceremony. She dropped her stuff on the counter and left it there and grabbed a glass of water. The invitation was on the counter and it virtually looked like she made a mess; a contradiction to her tidiness in the lab.

She went over to her study and turned on the laptop that she had recently purchase and began to check emails. She deliberately ignored one file folder that indicated over a thousand unopened emails and was marked BIOHAZARD. It was more of a joke on her end but also indicated how she felt. She found one from her father and it was like the others, short and straight to the point. She gave her response secretly proud that the stubborn old Marine learned how to use a computer and email.

She spent close to one hour writing on her laptop. The clacking of her fingers tapping the keys were soothing even though she had been around machines all day and making noise. At least this was more along the lines of sheer winding down and it was relaxing. Besides the content made her smile especially when she looked at her notes and flipped through them. She hummed as she finished the end and saved and by that time she was ready to crash and her favorite place was the couch even though her room wasn’t too far away.

A quick shower later, Sage was on her couch and ready to sleep. It was then her phone rang. She grimaced at the thought that her workaholic boss was calling her. Looking at the number, she recognized the lab and answered, “Parker.”

It was Grissom and he virtually said that he wanted her back at the lab. Apparently he wanted her to help out with Ian Wolf and actually see the interview. Sage looked up at the ceiling and resisted the urge to moan. “Alright. I’ll be there.”

She found herself back at the lab at what seemed a short time later and carrying a tall coffee, black. She walked through the halls with her coffee and stifled the yawn that threatened. She was following orders on this even though she could see no further need for her to be on the case. She gave an absent minded wave to someone who greeted her and made her way to the locker room to put her bag in her locker and went on a hunt.

“Hey Parker.”

Sage turned automatically when she heard Nick’s Texan drawl. She made a joke with a tired smile, “I guess catching a nap is not in the cards today huh?”

Nick looked at her. She wasn’t miffed or anything. “I guess not. Listen um… I just want to apologize if I offended you earlier.”

Sage raised her brow at that. “Offended me?”

“Well yeah.”

“You did nothing of the sort. I asked, you said no so that was that,” Sage replied. She frowned at that. “Why do you think that?”

Nick looked at Sage and wondered if she finally cracked or what. He frowned, “Um… I just essentially gave you the cold shoulder.” He almost asked it in the form of a question. He felt like he was back in school and he had been caught passing notes and asked for the answer to prove that he had been paying attention.

“You weren’t an ass if that was what you were getting at.” Sage looked at Nick and wondered where he got the idea that he needed to apologize. Still she felt some explanation as needed so she might as well provide it. “I just noticed you seemed a bit down and thought… well it was presumptuous of me anyway.” She shrugged her shoulders. She really didn’t see a problem since she made a mistake and was not going to dwell on it. She turned to leave.

Nick reached out and stopped her by putting a hand on her shoulder, “Wait. What do you mean by that?”

“What it is,” Sage replied. At the look Nick was giving her, she could see that he wasn’t getting what she had long accepted as truth especially when Cassie made it very clear on several occasions, she knew she had to explain. She gave a slight sigh, “It’s a very old habit. Growing up a military brat and moving… didn’t leave a whole lot of room for making friends. It was a lot like friends today but next week you’re gone and… nothing.”

“Is that what you think about us?”

“Possibly,” Sage admitted truthfully. “Called you partner the first day and Greg… I was treating him like I would a little brother if I had one. Plenty of acquaintances Stokes and sometimes I ended up kidding myself into thinking it a friendship. I just wanted to make sure you were okay. You had the big leave me alone sign on the door so I was fine with that. It was nothing.”

“Felt like it wasn’t nothing.” Nick paused a moment, not wanted this to result in a fight. God knew that he had hell when they didn’t like each other. “So you say things and if you get the brush off, you don’t feel anything?”

“I would feel it coming from Greg,” Sage replied, “From the others...” She shrugged her shoulders. “A wait and see and work in progress. You know me and Warrick are tight and with Sara… we run races all the time. You and me… partners and I consider it friendship in its own way. You kind of get what I’m getting at?”

Nick could understand the military brat thing but he got the feeling that there was more to it than simply accepting the fact that making friends was something best reserved for nonmilitary brats. It was something to think about later. “So you’re not mad or anything?”

“You’re my partner Stokes. I got your back when you need it,” Sage replied with a smile. “It’s cool. Now I better go before I have to figure out taking a bus to homicide.”

“What is it with you and buses?” Nick couldn’t help but ask. At least he felt better but still a bit puzzled about her quirks.


	8. Chapter 8

“You want something from the arrangement?”

Nick tried not to laugh since Greg looked like he was attempting to be one of those Mafioso guys or something. He really couldn’t fool Greg if he wanted something regarding the friendly competitions he had with Sage since they were like BFFs though they would probably say that it wasn’t like that. He gave a slight sigh, “Not really but maybe you could answer something for me.”

“I might but if you go into a no fly zone… off limits,” Greg replied. He didn’t want to betray Sage’s confidence.

“Fair enough,” Nick replied, holding his hands up. “You and Parker are tight right?”

“You mean like friends?” Greg frowned a bit at that. “Yeah, sort of. More like siblings. I mean there are things we do to each other but no one is allowed to mess with the other. It’s kind of nice on my end. Why?” He was curious at the question since this was not something one asked without a reason to it.

“And has she said the same?”

“Yeah and meant it. Nick what are you getting at?”

“Just something she said,” Nick replied thinking that it was a bad idea to ask about it.

“Does this have to do with the fact that you looked like she shot you down when she left earlier even though she actually waved at you?” Greg studied Nick as he asked the question. “I was there.”

“Maybe,” Nick replied. “I thought I may have offended her but she said it was no big deal.”

“Probably because it wasn’t,” Greg said as he went about his work. “You know she was a military brat. Lonely life, always moving when dad got orders.”

“But surely there were other kids.” Nick frowned in puzzlement. “I mean even one friend…”

“She did have her sister,” Greg offered, making the decision that it was harmless. “Plus I think it was because Sage was a nerd in school. Not sure.” He shrugged his shoulders. He looked at Nick and saw the look of puzzlement. “Look man, I think it is a practical thing. I can say though that what she defines is definite when it comes to relationships. We’re like siblings. Whatever you guys have is what it is and usually has a deeper meaning behind it. And I’m not just saying that on a shrink level or something. You want to find out, the key is how she was raised… in most cases.”

Nick thought about it. It was something to think about. Maybe he was making too much out of it but it was the way she described her life growing up… There were a lot of holes and while he learned a few interesting things like it was a priest that convinced her to take a career in science, they were mostly anecdotal. Serious stuff like her work for CPS in D.C. she would mention but it was like a closed book at times. He didn’t blame her for that.

It wasn’t a trust issue. He was sure of that. After all she trusted him in the beginning even though they weren’t really getting along with each other. And she had his back when they were paired up. Though she did like to have fun at his expense but he was the same back at her. “So when she says that she’s got my back…”

“She’s got it.” Greg finished what he was doing. “Oh you might want to call Catherine. I’m just about ready.”

It wasn’t too long of a wait since Catherine was already there. Greg was sitting at his work station gloved up and working. “FYI: 30 swabs in six hours? Not realistic all right? Even for me.”

“Come on Greg, I thought you liked a challenge. What are we looking at here?” Nick looked up from the file he had been reading while waiting as well as thinking about what they had discussed. It was a lot to process and it felt like information overload.

“Lots and lots of epithelials,” Greg replied after sighing a bit. “There were skin cells shed all over the blanket.”

Catherine nodded as if expecting the worst case scenario. After hearing Nick’s confession about what happened when he was nine… she could understand his anxiousness to know the results. She wanted to hear them too and if Dr. Sapien was guilty, then this was the way to nail her. “Dylan Buckley’s. Dr. Sapien’s.”

“You’re two thirds of the way there,” Greg replied with a slight nod. “I isolated a set of cells from another individual. Identity unknown. But when it’s important to Nick here, I push further. Seven of the thirteen markers matched your dead kid.”

“Familial DNA.” Catherine was frowning at that. It didn’t make sense.

“Father’s dead, means we’re looking at Mom,” Nick supplied. The sick feeling that he had been having throughout the case subsided since this turned into a whole new case of weird.

“Naked kid under a blanket at his shrink’s late at night and his mother’s there,” Catherine summed up.

“And your case just entered into a whole new dimension of weird,” Greg added as he turned in his chair back to his table. He put the pen he had been holding on the table.

Catherine looked at Nick. They were in agreement that this was weird. Catherine wondered what the hell was going on to the point that epithelials of mom, kid and shrink were on the blanket. She recalled that Sage’s notes that she had gotten earlier mentioned that sometimes inappropriate relationships occurred with what Dylan Buckley was diagnosed with.

Nick was thinking that something was suspicious about the whole blanket thing. He started thinking asphyxiation. He looked at Catherine and made a slight motion in the direction towards autopsy. Catherine nodded and they both started down. They came in while Doc Robbins was eating a late dinner. Nick spoke first, “Doc? The kid in his underwear… tell us about the Y-incision.”

Doc Robbins had quite a few surprises within the past couple of days from CSIs coming in with strange requests or bursting in and demanding answer. He was still reeling a bit from Sage and Grissom’s queries so Nick and Catherine were mild in comparison. “Leftovers from my anniversary dinner.”

“Congratulations,” Catherine offered.

“Thanks.” Now that the pleasantries were put aside, Doc Robbins could start in on the business end of things. It helped. “Same tan fibers I found on the outside I found on the inside. Mouth, nasal passages, both lungs.”

“He was wrapped in that blanket,” Catherine summed up and Nick hummed his agreement.

“Mm-hmm. Head to toe.”

It was enough to bring in Dr. Sapien and Mrs. Buckley in for questioning. To Nick he was getting some answers that would explain why a boy was dead and apparently in his mother’s presence. The sick feeling that he had lessened some more as the necessary calls were made to bring in both the mom and the shrink. As he and Catherine walked to get into their Tahoe to head down to Homicide, he noticed Sage and Warrick walking. They were carrying what looked like a tool belt. He took as good a look he was going to get at her and she was… fine. Maybe there was something to what Greg had said.

****

“You know you didn’t have to ask me to come,” Sage said as she bagged the metal cutters with especial care.

“You know I like good company,” Warrick replied with a slight smirk. Technically Grissom sent him to collect the cutters from Ian Wolf but since Sage was around and she was a probie, he exercised his seniority and told her to come along.

“More like I’m the gofer,” Sage replied as she put the pliers in a plastic evidence bag and sealed and marked it.

“Where else am I going to find someone that isn’t a cadet but still a newbie to do the dirty work?”

Sage finished bagging and collecting the evidence. They left the area where Ian Wolf had been working and where they had seized the cutters. She tucked it under her arm and adjusted the hard hat on her head and glanced at Warrick and couldn’t help but laugh.

Warrick looked at her as they turned in the hard hats, “What?”

Sage tried hard to keep the next bout of laughing that threatened until they were clear. “Nothing.”

“Yeah nothing my ass,” Warrick replied with a slight smile. “It was the hat right?”

“Let’s just say that it’s a good idea to comb your hair before you put a hard hat on,” Sage answered as she put the evidence in the back and shut the door. She cleared her throat to stifle the yawn that threatened and climbed into the passenger side.

Warrick rolled his eyes slightly as he opened the door to the driver side. He looked at Sage who was sitting serenely with her hands folded in her lap. She looked like she was sitting down for tea or something and ended up staring at her for some time.

Sage noticed that Warrick was staring at her and looked at him staring at her through the open door. “Yes?”

“Nothing except that I feel like I have to wear a suit if I’m driving,” Warrick said and he finally climbed into the driver’s seat. “What is it with the whole prim and proper when you ride in a car?” He started the engine.

Sage looked down at her lap and noticed the position of her hands. They hadn’t moved much when she turned to look at Warrick. She choked out a chuckle, “Oh this. Sorry. Old, _old_ habit.”

“Seems like you have a lot of old habits,” Warrick said as he turned onto the street that would take them back to the lab. “Like earlier at the mortuary.”

“I stopped to think about it,” Sage explained. She made a slight motion with her head and she still had her hands in her lap. She did relax her legs some and crossed them at the ankles but she still looked like she was prim and proper.

“Come on. I’ve seen you look at blood, body fluids and dead bodies. You made a face and looked like you were trying not to blush.”

“Hey I didn’t see you man it out,” Sage retorted in a teasing fashion. “I saw that look of pain… like someone just shot a line drive down there.”

Warrick winced at the visual he got when she said that. He visualized that it was her doing that and he didn’t have a hard time believing that she could. He remembered what she did to the suspect that tried to get the drop on her when they worked that one case with the kids that were kidnapped and they escaped. The funny thing was that she hardly looked the part in terms of being a tough girl.

Taking his mind off the visual, he said, “Alright you got me on that one. It’s just you were like a girl.”

“News flash: I am a girl Warrick,” Sage replied with a grin. She finally moved her hands so they look less like that of a young lady sitting in church or something like that. “It’s just how I was raised. Mama insisted on propriety and it more or less stuck. Occasionally I make a fuss over cleanliness like a bossy mom and I turn into a prude when I think about talking about anything related to sex.”

“Bossy I get. I’ve seen how you boss the lab rats around.”

“Nah. They just… I have no idea,” Sage replied and made a waving motion to indicate she didn’t have the slightest idea. “Greggo I get. And that’s all I’ve got.”

Warrick made a slight sound at that. He had watched her when she interacted with the lab techs. She got along well with them and even joked with them. He had heard the nickname the print lab and ballistics had for her and it caught on quickly so almost everyone except Greg called her that. “Right and they don’t call you Sparks for nothing.”

“Lab tech privilege to use that and it was a rather clever usage of my name.” Sage pointed at Warrick in a warning gesture.

“Alright I surrender.” Warrick paused a moment as he made the necessary turn. He cleared his throat slightly and glanced at Sage. “So when did you agree with Grissom about the DB?”

“Oh I suspected in the beginning,” Sage replied, “And as I mentioned to Sara, the behavior was inconsistent with everyone else saying it was suicide. I know I make a fuss over the whole fact that I profile cases and do psych assessment…”

“You prefer the hands on science.”

“Something like that,” Sage replied as she looked out the passenger window. She gave a slight sigh after a brief pause. “Also I don’t generally like people to pry and eventually find out that I am a licensed shrink and fully qualified to give 730 evaluations as well as psych evals on civil servants like cops. Next thing I know people tell their problems to me.”

“Then why get it? Why become licensed?”

It was a legitimate question and Sage wasn’t sure if Warrick would believe her reasons or would dismiss them as completely crazy. Still it was the truth and at least in the aftermath it was rather funny. She took the plunge, “A friend bet me that I couldn’t.”

Warrick looked at Sage to make sure he heard her right. “What?”

“A college buddy bet me that I couldn’t complete a dual Ph.D. in biochemistry and behavioral analysis aka psychology,” Sage elaborated. She saw the look on Warrick’s face and could tell that his initial thoughts were of the ‘what the hell variety’. That was usually the case at first glance. “We were friends at Ole Miss and we both got accepted into Georgetown. He was into the mind and I was the chemist. He thought it would be funny to see me try to attempt dual degrees in two different mindsets and I was foolish enough to accept it.”

“Foolish my ass. You probably thought it was fun,” Warrick managed to say after he got over the shock of what he had just heard. “I know you Parker. You think a trash run is fun if you get at least one body part.”

“Don’t over exaggerate… but yeah I did think it would be fun,” Sage replied. She could see that Warrick was still in a state of disbelief. “I was young enough to do it at the time.” At the look she got she clarified, “Child prodigy.”

“You? A prodigy?”

“Well don’t make it seem like it’s impossible,” Sage said in a mock teasing fashion. “But yeah I was declared a child prodigy I think when I was eight. What I remember was that I was bored in class and I was assessed so…” She shrugged her shoulders as if it were no big deal. “Skipped grades in school and essentially freak and geek all the way. Now just me.”

Warrick listened to that. So that put Sage younger than what he assumed she would be. It was no wonder that she looked like she still belonged in college. He made a slight motion with his head and said, “Didn’t expect that. I thought you were one of those girls that naturally looked younger than their age.”

“A look women envy,” Sage muttered. She gave a smile in Warrick’s direction, “But no big deal. Any way my friend would throw ideas for his dissertation at me and I gave my opinion. He did this when he completed his B.A. So he came up with the idea that we could do the degree together. I wasn’t interested at first.” She paused a moment to take a breath. “Understand something Warrick, I’ve been able to read people fairly accurately since I was little. You know the whole Sherlock Holmes thing about observation and deduction… I did that. I didn’t want anything to do with it as an adult since it freaked people out when I could tell they had been lying.”

“So what changed your mind?”

“Gari, my friend, he sort of blackmailed me about a prank that was done to the captain of the football team of one of our rivals at Ole Miss and plus he threatened to tell stories about a few things that would shame the guys.”

“You got blackmailed?” Warrick looked at her as he parked the Tahoe and killed the engine.

“Hey there are things I did I regret but I was younger and stupider then and they were pretty well placed hits,” Sage defended as she got out of the Tahoe. “I’m sure you have a few.”

“Yeah and ones I know I wouldn’t want you to weasel out though you seem to get Nick every time.”

“He’s easy.” Sage cleared her throat slightly as she went to the back to get the evidence out. She poked her head around the back end, “Nice thing about behavioral analysis and psychology is that you learn how to use the power of persuasion and the like on others.”

“Sounds like a con man.”

“Did that in high school.”

Warrick watched Sage as she walking through the door and into the lab. He couldn’t tell if she was kidding or not about that last part. That was the thing with her. She loved to make them think one thing and then would convince them it was true but then she would go back and show them how to spot she used the truth mingled with the lie. It was how she got Nick with the fake story about the alligator hunt.

Catching up with her he said, “You get to play with the cutters.”

“Me? Surely it would be best to have a senior CSI do it,” Sage teased back in a coy manner.”

“Seniority, probie,” Warrick teased back. It wasn’t too bad since he would be supervising. “I’ll just sit back and watch.”

“Oh I get it. I’m a gofer.”

“Now you got the right idea.”

“You got it Boss.” Sage emphasized the word ‘boss’ a little to defer that Warrick was in charge. She held the cutters tucked under her arm as they walked through the lab.

“Don’t call me that. It sounds weird coming from you,” Warrick said with a slight frown on his face as he tried to come up with the right word for it. “I feel like I should be on a farm or something with that accent.”

Sage knew her drawl made certain words sound funny. Nick loved to tease her when she attempted the street slang that Warrick used. It was a good cover in that people wouldn’t end up taking her seriously and end up getting their butts into deeper and hotter water. “Funny cause it sounded weird to me too. Wonder why Grissom doesn’t say anything?”

“Probably doesn’t notice.”

They had gotten into the lab that they needed to work in. Sage started by prepping the cutters. Warrick had gone to get the grounding prong from the drill that had been tampered with. He also picked up a sample prong that was similar to the one from the drill. They had already tested the cutters that had been placed at the scene and those were found to not be a match.

Sage made the notations on the log and wrote down the specs of the cutters and where they were obtained. Essentially she followed protocol with the cutters. She and Warrick put on goggles so no debris would hit them in the eyes if it went flying. She held out the cutters in her gloved hands, “Do you want to do the honors?”

“You can’t do it yourself?”

“And here I was thinking you were a gentleman.” Sage gave a slight smirk to indicate that she could do it.

“Oh I’m worthy. Go ahead Parker,” Warrick replied and motioned towards the sample he had prepped.

Sage nodded and held the cutters. Grounding prongs were hard to snap off. It would take a large amount of force to snap it off let alone cut it off and render it useless. So she had to use a good amount of force. She was well aware that she didn’t look like she could handle something that required strength but she could hold her own and had surprised a few people. She held the prong and the cutters and snapped the prong off.

“Damn Parker. Next time you get to do the heavy lifting.”

Sage looked at Warrick with a smirk. “Right cause I’m your Robo-girl.”

“Hey we’re tight.” Warrick held up his fist for a bump and grinned when Sage returned it with her smaller one. “Now let’s see what we got.”

Sage handed the plug and said, “Here you go. I’ll just put these away.” She went to put the cutters back into the evidence bag. At that time Grissom and Sara had come in to find out where they were at. “Just in time for the show.”

Grissom and Sara took their positions while Warrick put their drill prong and sample prong under the scope. He didn’t mind when Sage stood behind him and peered over his shoulder though it was a bit funny since he was taller and she was stretching a bit. His focus though was on the prongs and he adjusted the scope to get a clear look. “Twin moons of Venus.”

“Overlap to one,” Grissom said. Side by side they looked a match but they had to be positive about this. He didn’t want to make the same mistake twice.

Warrick obeyed and adjusted the scope to overlap the two images. When put together it was a match. “Striations match.”

“Wolf stuck a nail in Valenti’s boot, compromised the drill and cut the grounding prong with his own cutters,” Sara said, summarizing what appeared to have happened.

“This seems like a lot of work to kill a guy,” Warrick replied, frowning.

“Not for an electrician,” Grissom added, “I’m going to find Brass.” He started to walk out of the room to do that. “Oh Sage, Catherine needs you for something up at homicide,” he paused to add.

Sage gave a slight nod and made a slight face at that. In the meantime Warrick said, “Hey Griss. I think I can speak for me and Sara when I say I’m sorry that we let you down.”

“We quit before we should have,” Sara added.

“Yeah you did,” Grissom said. It was all he could say. In the end they learned something from this experience. “You better get over to Homicide, Sage.” He then turned to go find Brass.

The three remaining CSIs watched him leave. Sage had a raised brow as she looked at Sara and then at Warrick. She felt like they did even though she had followed Grissom’s lead and believed the guy was electrocuted. She cleared her throat softly and said, “Well I guess I better go see what drudgery Catherine has for me. Nice work on the prongs, Warrick.” She gave a reassuring pat on Warrick’s shoulder. She paused by Sara and muttered, “At least you nailed someone.”

Sara smiled and muttered back, “Next time Parker.”


	9. Chapter 9

Sage adjusted the jacket she had picked to wear when she was called in to her shift early. She stifled the yawn that was threatening and checked to make sure that she had everything. She actually wasn’t sure what Catherine wanted her to do but she suspected that it had something to do with her case with the fourteen year old boy. She had given Catherine her report on what she requested so it was a little odd unless she needed clarification on something.

That last bit though sounded weak to Sage. Catherine was an intelligent woman and capable of figuring things out for herself. So Sage found it a little strange since as far as she knew there wasn’t anything to decipher in terms of notes from the lady shrink; it was a little too much to process on a tired brain. Sighing, Sage picked up a steno notepad she had dug out of her battered bag and stuck a pen in the coil binder and walked out of the locker room. She started walking through the halls and was nearly startled when a cup of coffee was stuck in her face.

“You’ve been looking asleep at the wheel Sparks.”

Sage looked at Mandy and gave smiled, “Thanks Mandy you certainly made everything dandy. How’re the eyes?”

“I’m not cross eyed anymore and glad that you got the guy,” Mandy replied. She put her hands in her lab coat pocket, looking like she was going for a stroll. “So what’s going on?”

“Just on my way for an interview,” Sage replied and she took a sip of the coffee. She made a slight face of surprise. “Is this from Greg’s private stash?”

“He let me borrow it,” Mandy replied with a slight smile.

“Let go my Greggo, Mandy,” Sage returned the smile with one of her own. “Take it easy on him. I just never expected that he would part with the special blend so easily.” She took a couple of more sips of the much needed coffee.

“Actually he asked me to make a pot and to make sure you got one. He said the rest was for the techs,” Mandy admitted. She looked at Sage with a mildly discerning eye. “He would have brought you the cup himself but he was running swabs the last six hours.”

“Well if anyone needs coffee it’s him. Did he get one?”

“Don’t worry about us lab rats, Sparks. We got it covered.”

“I am so relieved,” Sage replied with a slight hint of sarcasm and a lot of playfulness. She finished her cup and actually felt refreshed by it. “You guys emphasize teamwork when you look after each other.”

“Well seems you made an impression… not that it wasn’t there before,” Mandy quipped. She was working up the courage to ask the question that the techs were dying to know. She just happened to draw the short straw but also the logic was that the most info would be spilled to her or Greg.

“It’s why you guys are part of the number two crime lab in the country,” Sage countered.

“You don’t say.” Mandy paused a bit and thought about how she was going to ask. “So… now that you solved the case, what are you doing next?”

Sage had started looking at her copy of her report to refresh her memory when Mandy asked her question so it sounded a little casual, “Just finish up with being a general dogsbody and then maybe catch a few Z’s.”

“I meant about what you got Nick Stokes into,” Mandy said, deciding to lay it out on the line. It was better than trying to be sly with it. “Your bet.”

“Oh.” Sage felt a slow smile curl up on her face. She had a feeling that the techs were pretty good at spying and being nosy. No doubt Nick would have figured that out by now and would have recruited one or two to help. Of course with all of the techs being nosy, it was hard to pinpoint which one. They, like everyone outside of Grissom’s team, had no idea to the status of her and Nick’s friendship since they were always seen competing and sometimes arguing over nothing. “That.”

“Bobby says that you might do bungee jumping but you already did that with Greg.”

“ _Nun_ of that I can assure you,” Sage replied specifically emphasizing her word choice. She decided that she was going to have a little fun with this and try not to frustrate Mandy so much. “He’ll be _bowled_ over with amusement or he might strike out.”

Mandy could see that Sage was not going to make this easy. “You really are going to make us work for this aren’t you?”

“Making Stokes work for it.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“You’re not the only one who has been trying to get out of me who else will be playing on our bowling night,” Sage replied after leaning in to whisper it. “I figure that Stokes will probably hit you guys up for information.”

“There’s no way that you’ll give in?”

“Nope,” Sage replied with a slight shake of her head and she smiled. “Don’t worry Mandy, it will make a funny story though. That I can promise.” She finished her cup of coffee and checked her watch. “Well I better get going otherwise I might be doing more than writing apologies.”

Mandy took the empty cup and watched as Sage walked out. She shook her head at what happened. There was no way that anyone would find out what she had in mind unless she wanted people to know. She started back to the print lab and noticed that she was being watched by the others and gave a slight shake of her head. It would be a feeding frenzy when they had time.

As she walked back, Mandy thought about it some more. She went over what Sage had said and the emphasis on certain words. It wasn’t too hard even though sometimes Sage emphasized certain words because of her Southern drawl that was a bit more pronounced than Nick’s Texan one. Once Mandy put two and two together she stopped in her tracks. It became clear now and she couldn’t help but get a smile on her face. Oh this was going to make a pretty good story.

The other techs noticed and that was the signal that Mandy found something out. They made their way one by one to get details. Mandy simple went back to running prints and smiled. There was no way she was going to let their gossip train ruin this. She could keep it.

“Hey Mandy…”

“No way Greg.”

Greg leaned against the doorjamb to the print lab. He had seen Sage and Mandy interact and hoped that they had talked. When Mandy walked by and got that knowing look, he knew he had money in terms of what Nick was looking for. Of course if Mandy decided to keep it to herself, then it was going to be something like a game of tug-o-war like it was now. “Come on. I let you guys have some from my private stash. Plus I let you take a cup to Sage.”

“You were busy with your swabs and you told me to,” Mandy pointed out. She looked up from her work to see Greg looking at her with a passive expression that looked like he was going to pounce on her. “Not telling.”

“So she did say something,” Greg replied with a grin.

“Maybe. You know how she likes puzzles,” Mandy replied as she went back to work, looking at her prints. “Besides I think she would have told you at least. You two are like… peas in a pod.”

Greg chuckled a bit but he had to sober up, “She didn’t tell me this.”

“Probably because she thinks Nick drafted you into helping him.”

“Not drafted,” Greg countered like a kid that just caught his hand caught in the cookie jar and was trying to bluff his way out of it. “I volunteered to give him a hand. He went with the simple and bad and crashed and burned. No mercy from her.”

“And what makes you think that I would tell you?”

“Because I’m cute?”

Mandy laughed at that. She shook her head as she bent over to look at another set of prints and made her notes. “Maybe in one of Archie’s alternate realities. Besides I think she knows he would go to you for help. Everyone assumes you tell each other everything.”

“Not everything but we are tight as friends could be,” Greg offered, “No wonder you guys think that we are like BFFs for life or something like that.”

“Please not the BFFs. I don’t think she would stand you that long.”

“She has so far.” Greg paused as he considered his alternatives. He really didn’t want to resort to begging but at this point it seemed like his only option. Nick had asked for something from the tech side of things and he had nothing. “Please Mandy.”

“Maybe.”

“I smell an ‘if’ in there.” Greg knew that if he even sensed that, it was best to run unless he felt like the need to take on a challenge. He did say that he liked them when it came to his DNA analysis lab and certainly Nick and Catherine appreciated it recently.

“And you would be right since I figured it out and you didn’t and I don’t know if I should trust you with something like this.” Mandy sat up and looked prim and proper about it. She gave Greg a sweet smile and let him debate on whether or not to take it. “What’s it gonna be?”

Greg thought about it. Mandy couldn’t possibly be as bad as he could be or even Sage for that matter. Or could she? It was a risk he was somewhat willing to take since he too was curious about bowling night. That’s all he knew it as and the details were not given and it was driving him crazy and he knew that it was driving Nick crazy even with everything else going on. He decided to take the plunge. “Okay, what do you have in mind?”

“If I tell you what Sparks told me then you have to first off not say a word about it to anyone including Nick.” At the look Greg gave her, Mandy explained, “She suspects that one of use would tell him.”

“Like I would do that?”

Mandy shot Greg a look that said that he would. “You would.”

“Alright fine and the second?”

Mandy thought about it some. She could dare Greg to ask Sage out on an actual date; the whole dinner and dance thing. She then decided that it wouldn’t be too funny enough since Sage would most likely play along and have fodder for a few jokes that she wouldn’t mind sharing. She watched as Greg was starting to squirm in anticipation of what her ‘punishment’ might be. She could have him serenade her but that was Nick’s thing and Sage was unpredictable though the flirting poem about her was a nice touch.

“Come on Mandy, you’re killing me here.”

Mandy suddenly had it. She knew exactly what to do and Greg would think it wasn’t so bad but she knew how to get it to make it look a little painful and he would go for it. “Alright. The second is that you take me on a dinner date. The where and when I choose and it will be dinner, not diner.”

Greg wasn’t sure that he liked the sound of that but he figured that it was a small price to pay in this case. He checked to make sure that Mandy wasn’t going to pull a fast one on him and finally said, “Agreed.” He held out his hand to seal the bargain. It probably was the worst idea he had but he was willing to take one.

Mandy took his hand and knew he would be bound by it. If he tried to get out of it, she would just go to the fearless leader and Greg would end up having to pay and then some. That was the general rule. “Deal then.”

“Okay, spill.”

Mandy just gave a grin and repeated the line that Sage had given her. She took perverse pleasure in watching Greg’s features frown in confusion. It was obvious that it was going to take some time on his end. She wished him good luck and to remember his promise and went back to work. She gave a soft smile knowing that probably she got the larger end of the stick this time around.

****

“Parker.”

Sage looked up from her reading while walking; it was a miracle she hadn’t run into anyone while she did it. It was a gift and even the other CSIs were guilty of such a thing. She just seemed to have a habit of it and running or near running into people. She turned to see Nick in front of her and she almost ran into him. “Oh sorry, Stokes. A little more preoccupied than usual. Maybe I should invest in a siren?”

Nick couldn’t help but give a slight chuckle at that. He replied in low tone, “I don’t know. It just doesn’t seem to be you because of that.”

“Maybe that annoying beep construction vehicles have when they are backing up,” Sage continued as she noted Nick’s quiet disposition. She had tempered her tone to the soft ones she used when she coaxed Sammy Weston out of hiding. “That usually works for them.”

“Nah. Just…” Nick glanced down and happened to glance at what Sage had been reading. It was upside down but he could make out what appeared to be case notes and he managed to catch that she was reading about what Dylan Buckley had been diagnosed with. “What are you doing?”

“Just reading what I wrote up for your case.”

“Catherine asked?” Nick heard his voice become a little terse.

“She just asked for specifics about your victim’s diagnosis,” Sage explained, keeping her tone in the gentle ones she had been using. “If you must know, I was confused since it’s easy to look it up.”

“And was that why you asked to help earlier?”

It wasn’t exactly a mean tone but even Nick was aware that his tone was ungrounded. It was within Catherine’s right to ask for help when she needed it. The thing that hit him though was the fact that he didn’t know when the request came and he knew that Catherine wouldn’t betray his confidence. He knew that Sage was a good investigator and is she found something, she pursued it and he didn’t really want her to know about it.

_Nick was on the case. As he told Catherine, he was thorough. He had asked for the report from David and got a copy and he was ready to roll. He had what was needed to get Dr. Sapien for what she did to Dylan Buckley._

_“Nick. I’ll have you removed from the case.”_

_Nick stopped and turned to look at Catherine. He could see the concern in her eyes. He had already felt bad for brushing off the one person who had his back._

_Catherine looked at Nick, trying to see what was wrong. “You’re confronting suspects before the evidence is processed. You’re flying solo, cutting me out. What’s going on?”_

_Nick took a deep breath. He knew that he couldn’t keep this in. Catherine meant what she said and she needed to understand where he was coming from. “Okay. There are some people you’re supposed to be able to trust, you know?”_

_Catherine had nodded in agreement and that gave Nick some confidence that he could continue, “I was nine. And she was a last minute babysitter.” He saw the implications become clear on Catherine’s face. “All I can remember doing is sitting in my room in the dark, staring at the door waiting for my mom to get home. But I’ve never told anyone before.”_

_Nick stood there as he watched the emotions play on Catherine’s face. “I’m sorry,” she said._

_“It’s what makes a person I guess,” he replied, “I’m sorry Catherine.” The then turned and walked away…_

Sage studied Nick as she held the file in her hands. She didn’t bother to hide it since he had already seen it. It seemed that this case bothered him more than others. Even their case with Robbie, Rachel and the others paled in comparison even though he had felt strongly about it then. She replied gently, “I only offered because it looked like it was a monumental task at the time. I was willing to delay heading home just to give a hand. Nothing more.”

“Always helping Parker?”

“One of my better qualities and my one redeeming feature,” Sage offered. She ran her fingers gently along the edges of her file. She ran the risk of a paper cut but she was used to them. “I was on my way for something else and decided to bring this over.”

“Nothing else? Nothing to offer like sympathy?”

Sage frowned a bit at that. That sounded a little funny to her and she had no idea what he was getting at with this. It had to be the case. It was always hard when it came to adolescents and they were the victims. “Why would I offer sympathy?”

Nick took in the look of confusion and realized he may have made a mistake and replied, “Never mind.”

Sage was still frowning. She wasn’t going to dig too deep. “I’ll pretend that you didn’t just get terse with me for having background on a diagnosis. I can understand why this would be difficult. It’s bad enough when an adult is a victim but it really sucks when it is a kid.”

Nick knew that she had done work for CPS and had seen child abuse. “Meaning when the kid was abused like your CPS thing?”

Sage looked off to the side to think about her response. She didn’t want to antagonize Nick since he was already in edge over this case. “That’s part of it. But I have seen kids that were molested. The youngest was seven and a little boy who was molested by someone who he was supposed to trust… his own sister.”

She hadn’t meant to mention that case but that had been a special case. They all were special cases but that one was more along the lines of really being personal and she had almost jeopardized the case by confronting the suspect before the evidence had been completely processed. It didn’t help that the boy had bruise marks that looked familiar. Calming herself even though she had appeared that way to Nick, she said, “I get how certain cases affect us. There is always something that ties to something in the past. It’s how we handle it when it matters the most that makes us what we are in the eyes of the world.”

Nick studied Sage as she looked at him thoughtfully. She didn’t know about what happened to him. He had been an idiot for assuming that Catherine would break that confidence and deep down he knew that she wouldn’t ever do that. Sage wouldn’t do that either. “You seem to know that well.”

“Like I said, there is always something that will affect us. It will always be children for me. It doesn’t matter what is done to them or how old they are.” Sage paused a moment and studied Nick. He was looking at her thoughtfully; he seemed to be thinking about what she was saying. She made a slight tick with her tongue against her teeth and continued, “Remember when I told you why I stayed in this job?”

Nick remembered that well. She watched Sammy Weston be reunited with his mom. He could also recall when the kid ran up to her and gave her a hug. “Yeah. Kids like the Weston kid…”

“Yes,” Sage replied nodding. “That is a part of it but also when I see that they are doing fine months and years down the line. That seven year old I mentioned… he was sent to one of the better ones in foster care and last I heard… he is officially theirs and he is happy. Things like that are included Stokes.”

Nick looked down for a moment feeling a little foolish but calm. “I understand and I’m sorry for the accusations.”

“What accusation?” Sage gave a look at Nick. She had meant what she said. It was forgotten unless he ever wanted to bring it up.

“The…” Nick stopped when he saw the look on Sage’s face. He understood that she wasn’t trying to piss him off or tease him; she had meant what she said about pretending it didn’t exist. It was like that strange conversation they had when he tried to apologize for his behavior in that that she said she wasn’t offended. “Okay.”

Sage gave a gentle smile. Nick noticed that playful twinkle that always seemed to be present even when she was on the case return. That meant they were truly on an okay setting. It was confirmed by her replying, “Good. Just keep in mind that what you do brings in justice one form or another. There is a time for everything and a season…

“For every activity under the heavens,” Nick finished giving a slight smile. “I read too.”

“I can see that,” Sage replied. “But what matters is how much you take it to heart.”

“I can tell you do,” Nick said. “You always seem to fall back on Scripture and I still have trouble seeing you that devoted and still manage to work at the lab. And that was after you told me the story about Father Israel and what he told you.”

“Ecclesiastes is always an inspiration,” Sage replied. She flushed a little since she was in the habit of occasionally quoting passages from the Bible. Sometimes she quoted famous people and books and others like Grissom did but her default was the Bible and sometimes it wasn’t comfortable since it was fairly obvious on the spectrum. “Very good that you know it.”

“Did you think I was a heathen?”

“No,” Sage replied. “Just unexpected but then again I think of Proverbs 3:5 often too.” She cleared her throat at that moment. “It was last Sunday’s sermon.”

Nick gave a smile. He felt better about the whole thing now. He cleared his throat as well. “I guess that went well.”

“Invitation is open,” Sage replied. She made the same one to others. Greg mentioned going but it hadn’t happened yet and she was patient enough. Gari said that he would come over next Sunday with Lily. It was something she did and left it to the person to decide. “Before shift start at 7pm. And the doors are always open.”

“Trying to recruit?”

“Don’t tease me Stokes.” Sage caught the teasing glint in his eyes and felt a little bit of relief from what she had sensed. It was okay but not a hundred percent.

“Okay, Parker,” Nick replied. He didn’t make fun of that part of her since it was that important to her. “I mean it though that I am sorry but I’ll keep what you said in mind. I gotta go question a couple of suspects so uh…”

“Better get going. I’ll probably find Cath before it starts,” Sage said in understanding. She watched him go to the interrogation room and stood there in the hall looking lost and waiting for Catherine. She didn’t have to wait long when the woman appeared. She said, “I got your call Cath. What’s the deal?”

“I need you watch and listen in on this interview, okay?”


	10. Chapter 10

Catherine looked at Mrs. Buckley and Dr. Sapien as they sat across from her. As a mom she could understand the certain actions of parents especially in desperate situations. What happened to Dylan Buckley, she wasn’t sure what to think especially when they found fibers inside and outside the victim’s body and they matched the angora blanket.

It was unconventional but she was glad that she had Sage watching through the mirror. She had given the facts of the case to the CSI and watched the nearly dark look that flashed over the younger woman’s face. She was surprised and it had her wondering if she made a mistake in borrowing her from Grissom but the look had passed and Sage said that she could listen in and confirm or deny anything technical from the shrink.

Catherine knew that Sage was watching through the window and could see who was in there. It perhaps was mean to do but Catherine didn’t mention it to Nick. She went along with the idea that Sage had brought her formal report on what she had asked and didn’t say a word about the CSI listening and watching as an observer.

As she looked at the two women, Catherine paused before she began, “Mrs. Buckley, we know that your son didn’t have a seizure. We also know that you were at Dr. Sapien’s house with Dylan the night that he died.”

Nick shuffled in his seat and leaned forward to add, “He was in his underwear wrapped in a blanket fighting for every breath.”

Mrs. Buckley looked homely as ever and her eyes were puffy. She gave a side glance at Nick, “I loved my son.”

“That’s what every parent says,” Nick replied. He could feel that tension in his stomach rise as he looked at the mother and the shrink. He could feel his temper rise a little too and it seemed that whatever he and Sage had discussed, it was going to be thrown out the window.

“This… This was therapy. I had tried everything else.” Mrs. Buckley shook her head slightly to emphasize her point. “Taken him to so many specialists. But I couldn’t reach him. So we… We tried the… We…” Mrs. Buckley looked at the table and then at Dr. Sapien. “I have to tell them.”

“It’s called rebirthing,” Dr. Sapien revealed.

Nick frowned at that, “Rebirthing?”

“It’s a technique used to treat extreme behavioral disorders,” Dr. Sapien explained, “The idea is to turn back the clock. Wipe the slate clean. Allow the child to re-bond with his mother.”

This was bringing the weird into reality as Catherine looked at the shrink. “What is the blanket for?”

“It represents the birth canal,” Dr. Sapien replied.

Both Nick and Catherine took a moment to think about it and process it. Both were unaware that the same thing was going on behind the mirror. Sage was staring at the good doctor. Her brow had raised so high, it was possible that they would pop off. She wasn’t sure what to think about this but she made her notes on her notepad.

Catherine tried to verbally make sense of this, “So you wrapped Dylan up, beat the hell out of him and hocus pocus he’s supposed to love you again?”

Sapien defended herself, “Rebirthing may not be a recognized therapeutic procedure but it’s not illegal.”

“Last time I checked, murder is,” Sage said as the same time as O’ Reilly as she watched. She made a mental note to go through her journals at home and look up anything available. There was some theory about birthing how it was when they child showed the extent of the bond between mother and child or something like that. She thought it was a weird form of Oedipus Rex Complex but not quite. She missed what Mrs. Buckley had said but she noted the tears that were threatening; definitely guilt.

“All other methods of therapy had failed. Dylan was becoming more belligerent, withdrawn, even dangerous,” Dr. Sapien explained, trying to make them see how desperate the situation was.

“I just wanted my son to love me. That’s all.”

“Dylan was a willing participant.” Dr. Sapien looked at Catherine. She had that look on her face that was silently asking them to see what they were trying to get at.

Sage listened as Dr. Sapien gave a rundown of what happened. It turned out that she had instructed Dylan to lie down on the ground in the fetal position and emphasized that she had asked Dylan if he wanted to be reborn. She could visualize what happened with Dylan and how he had died. He didn’t need to have died this way and Sage could see why this method wasn’t recognized and probably not fully documented. She certainly wouldn’t suggest it.

Sage also took a moment to study Nick. She noticed that he assumed that firm position he got when he interviewed suspects but she noted that he seemed to be struggling with his emotions. Whatever it was that had him riled up before was back in full force. She studied him and said softly to no one, “Stokes, don’t let rule you. You control it and work it through.”

“I thought it was part of the process,” Mrs. Buckley offered. She sniffled a little while Dr. Sapien assured her that it was. “She told me that’s what he was supposed to say. That babies don’t want to come out. That’s why it’s such an ordeal for the woman.”

“So you pushed on him like a mother in labor?” Catherine looked at the two women.

Sage felt her throat convulse. She watched the look on Nick’s face. She didn’t understand why a parent would agree to try that but she was familiar with desperation. Dylan trusted his mother knew what was best and they did take into consideration what he wanted but that didn’t excuse the fact that the kid was dead and their ‘therapy’ caused it.

There was a reason why it was called a practice. For as much as certain things were an absolute science in their line of work, nothing is absolute and mostly when it came to things like psychotherapy. The human brain in her view was one of the few frontiers in the realm of human understanding. There was a lot they knew, more than what had been known previously, but there was still a lot to be discovered. Yet in this case… Sage wasn’t sure what to think.

She felt ashamed that she was a part of that world but she also felt the need to use it to speak for the ones that couldn’t. This was just… She wasn’t sure what to think and she needed to get out and think a little. Maybe Grissom would have mercy and let her have the night off. She left her side, unaware that Nick had decided to excuse himself at the same time.

Nick left interrogation to think and just mull over things. It hadn’t been as he had initially thought but it was just as bad. A kid was dead and because a mom was desperate enough to try anything to get him to love her again. It was still a trust issue since Dylan trusted that his mom and shrink were doing what was best for him and hell that was what a parent was supposed to do when it came to their kids. He felt disgusted with the whole thing and that sick feeling just churned his stomach as he stepped out.

He happened to turn and noticed Sage as she stood just outside the door to the observation room and she was massaging her head and staring almost blankly at the ground. She had her stuff tucked under arm. Noticing her posture, Nick concluded that she had just received some bad news or she had just listened to the entire thing that just occurred. He looked at her and ventured, “Parker.”

Sage looked in the direction of the voice. She almost panicked but maintained her composure. “Hey,” she offered.

“You okay?”

“Yeah, just an epiphany.” Sage cleared her throat. “Excuse me.” She turned and walked out of homicide, leaving Nick there wondering what was going on.

It was later that he found her reading a journal in the break room. It was lying in a position so that she had her arms folded on the table and the edge of the journal and bending over it. To her left she had her notepad and occasionally she would move her left and write something down on it. She paused only once to rub the bridge of her nose and ease the pinching that her glasses were giving. He tapped on the door frame, “Hey, you find what you’re looking for?”

“Maybe. I’m about ready to throw this against the wall,” Sage replied as she finished rubbing her eyes. She checked her watch and noted the time. “And about time since I’m off. Grissom said I had the night off.”

“Running on empty?”

“Not even fumes.” Sage put her pen in the binding of her journal and stacked things. She had a moment to think about what had happened and what she had observed. Standing up she made ready to leave. “Well time to go. You doing okay? Case worked itself out?”

“I’m fine,” Nick replied. “The revelation was somewhat… not what I expected.”

“But it still felt the same right?” Sage had time to think about it. She could recall a couple of instances that the interview had her wandering down memory lane and it wasn’t pretty. “That’s always a bummer.”

“How do you feel about it?”

“What?”

“Parker.”

Sage wasn’t going to hide it and the jig was up anyway. It occurred to her that Nick realized she had overheard nearly the entire interview. “That it sucks. It wasn’t technically the worst case scenario but the kid is still dead. So it sucks.”

“And what do you think about the therapy?”

Sage motioned to her work. She knew Nick could see it. He wasn’t a blind idiot; he was a CSI and trained to observe. “I’ve been reading.”

“What do you think?” Nick knew she wasn’t playing but she wasn’t making it easy either. She wasn’t trying to be a pain in the ass on purpose; it was clear that the whole thing bothered her. He had little idea that before she got back, she had an interesting conversation with the sheriff about the work she did with Grissom on their electrocution case and it left her in a worse mood and she was just through the half-life of it.

Sage looked at Nick instantly apologetic. Her mind was still on the fact that Mobley had tracked her down after Ian Wolf had been arrested and taking down to booking and the conversation that followed. While she didn’t have to issue an apology, Mobley implied that her actions would be overlooked but she would have to play nice if she wanted to stay. At least that was what it sounded like to her and she was already frazzled from what she heard and it didn’t help that she was bone tired.

She had been blunt with her responses initially. Now it felt like she was deflated as she replied, “A good reason that it is not recognized and it is along the lines of fairy tales and hokum. Whatever happened to the unconditional natural love between mother and child? I thought that was obvious.”

Nick glanced around. It was a good thing that no one else was around. “So you don’t agree with it?”

“As someone who is investigating a crime, if it were my case, unbelievable… as a fully licensed shrink, it is hokum. Satisfy you?”

“You are actually a shrink?” Nick happened to latch onto that. He had always thought it to be a joke. It was one thing to have a degree in behavioral analysis but a different thing that it can be used to treat people. He looked at Sage who had collected her things, “I always thought that it was like a joke or something.”

“It was a joke,” Sage replied as she started to leave. “A joke and a dare and now it’s a curse. Oh don’t worry about bowling night. Rain check.”

Nick watched as she left the break room. He shook his head and had a thought. He chased after her, “Wait up Parker.”

****

“Are you sure you want to do this?”

Nick looked at Sage as she looked at him with a raised brow. He was probably going to regret this but if there was one thing that was certain, that was he was a man of his word when he took a challenge from Sage Parker and had to pay the forfeit. “Yeah. I agreed and I think we both can agree that we need something to get our minds off of things.”

Sage studied Nick and noted the expression on his face. He had chased her to the locker room and came up with the idea to do their bowling ‘night’ sort of right then and there. She was ready to call it a night and just vegetate but Nick persuaded her by mostly commenting that she was just going to curl up on her couch and eat apples and peanut butter. She agreed and then admitted that it was actually peanut butter cup ice cream and he ended up laughing at that.

So now they were at the bowling alley and he was going to find out what he had gotten himself into. She knew that Mandy had figured it out since that girl gave her a wink and Greg merely smirked. If he figured it out, she wasn’t sure but the point was that no one knew exactly or if they did, it was a vow of silence. She replied, “I’ll agree to that but you do know that I have a twist to that.”

“Don’t expect anything less from you, Parker.”

Sage gave a slight sigh, “Okay but don’t say I didn’t warn ya. Besides the people we are bowling with were very excited to have a game tonight and generous with their time. _Very_ generous.”

“Okay,” Nick replied with a shrug of his shoulders. He had seen a few teams and couple of kid teams there and figured that they were going to play against one of them. “So are they in training or something?”

“You could say that,” Sage replied with a slight movement of her head. “They do take their bowling seriously though. They have competed in a few tournaments and well…”

“Sort of like football fans.”

“Any kind sport Stokes though I think the seriousness is the equivalent of football. I know I do.” Sage pointed at herself to emphasize her point. She then noticed their group coming in. “Ole Miss fan through and through.”

“Couldn’t beat the Aggies,” Nick said with a slight look in his eye.

“If they were in the same division, they would wipe your Aggies’ asses,” Sage countered. “But I guess we’ll never know unless you want to do a challenge on the gridiron?”

“You play?”

“I’m a mean tight end… first string.” Sage smiled sweetly as she said that. She put her hands behind her back as she watched their group check in and get their gear.

Nick looked at her. She had to be kidding. “Nah,” he said. “Unless you’re referring to the peewee league or something.” When she refused to answer he studied her. “You’re serious?”

“Think what you want Stokes,” Sage replied as she released her hands. “I could even be referring to two hand touch.” She went to go retrieve their party.

Nick followed her as she walked over to a group of people. At first he thought it was a joke but when she brought them over, he knew that it wasn’t a joke. This was the real deal. No wonder she kept a tight lip and Greg was peeling over in laughter when they left the lab. He looked at the group and then Sage and asked, “So this is who we’re playing against?”

“Not exactly,” Sage said. “This is Sister Margaret and we’ll be on her team. Her two regulars are on duty as well as the substitutes.” She motioned to the nuns standing behind Sister Margaret.”

Sister Margaret took Nick’s proffered hand and gave a good shake, “I’m glad that you were able to come tonight. In fact we weren’t quite expecting it until later this week. I hope you know the basics at least.”

“He’d better otherwise we will end up blowing it big time,” an older and slightly grouchy looking nun piped up.

“And you are?” Nick looked at the nun.

“Sister Bernice, young man and you better bring your A-game to this. We train hard and we would like to beat St. Michael’s this year,” Sister Bernice said in crisp tones. “I was surprised that this young lady was able to volunteer even though she isn’t Catholic.”

Sage made a slight face and replied, “But I still am a child of God who just wants to serve in every way possible.” She smiled sweetly at the sister.

The other nuns were convulsing with laughter. Nick had to admit that seeing Sage being cute with a grouchy nun was rather funny. He knew she could be fearless when the occasion called for it. He himself wouldn’t have risked the wrath of the sister but it seemed to be great fun for her. Sister Bernice looked grouchy at first but gave a smile, “And I pray that you’ll lose that cheeky tongue of yours.”

“One can only pray sister,” Sage replied with a smile of her own. “Well shall we play?”

The sisters were quick as they went to their respect sides on the lanes. Sage programmed theirs while a sister did Bernice’s console. Nick watched her and asked in a side whisper, “You’ve played before haven’t ya?”

“Fairly obvious Stokes,” Sage replied as she finished. She sat in her seat and redid the laces on her bowling shoes. She gave a slight shudder at the color choice and put her foot down. “It was one of the fun things to do I think it was at a base in Texas and they take their bowling as seriously as they do football.”

Nick adjusted the shoes he had been given. “You any good?”

“Average,” Sage offered with a shrug of her shoulders. She looked to see Sister Clarice on Bernice’s team start. “My underhand throwing technique is sluggish on my best hand.”

“Best hand?”

“I bowl right handed,” Sage said as she looked at Nick. “I’m ambidextrous in most things and some I do better with one hand than the other.”

“Quiet,” Sister Bernice hissed as the sisters prayed for a good game.

Sage twisted her lips, trying not to laugh as she respectfully bowed her head while they finished their prayer. She leaned over and whispered, “See, I told you they were serious about their bowling and worse than Texas.”

“About as serious as rescue from eternal damnation?” Nick meant it as a joke but he was curious about this bowling league the sisters were a part of.

“Don’t disregard that young man,” Sister Margaret said as she sat by them. “A saved soul means all the difference in where you spend eternity. Of course one needs to live as well.” She gave a slight smile as she got up to do her turn.

Nick watched the nun take her position. He looked at Sage who was paying attention and said, “Is this a conversion effort?”

“No,” Sage replied. “Sister Margaret needed a person as a substitute for practices. It so happened that on the regular training night, she needed a second person and I thought I’d volunteer you.”

“Volunteer? You made it into a forfeit,” Nick countered with a slight chuckle. “You could’ve asked.”

“But it was much more fun to get you on a bet,” Sage replied and she looked at him with a grin. “And I didn’t even have to cheat.”

“I would say that made up story was.”

“I followed the rules,” Sage reminded him. She checked and said, “You’re next.”

Nick took his turn and ended up getting eight the first time and actually picked up the spare. The sisters on his team cheered him on and commented that he was good. Of course Sister Bernice said that it was a good start but he better get better as the game wore on. The sisters laughed when she mentioned something about putting on the big boys’ pants and he ended up blushing. He looked at Sage who was sympathetic. He said to her, “Laugh it up Parker. I know you just wanted to have fun.”

“The fun was getting you here, Stokes. The rest is up to you,” Sage countered.

“A buck between us on best score?”

“Mmm… okay but like I said, I’m an average player.”

The sisters tittered at the bet especially when they sealed the deal. While gambling was not exactly looked well upon, they understood that there were some things that couldn’t be left alone. An example was the tournament with St. Michael’s. So they let the pair make their bet and settled to play the game.

Sage’s turn came up after Bernice and she stood ready to bowl. She almost looked like a posed statue as she stared down her lane and her eyes narrowed in concentration. She started forward and with a firm, smooth motion she released the ball. She gave a small smile when she got a strike and pivoted on her heel to look at Nick with a raised brow as if asking him to reconsider.

Nick was going to do no such thing. He gave a look back saying that he was going to see this through. He certainly stepped up in his game and was able to get a couple of strikes the next few times that he was up. He started to throw harder and harder as if it were going to throw off Sage’s game but she continued to bowl as if it were nothing and she merely smiled after each toss. It caused him to miss a strike and he couldn’t get the full spare.

In the end it was just the two of them after they finished their game with the nuns and they were thanked for helping with the training. Bernice said that it was the best practice they had and suggested another round at a later date and it was agreed to more on Nick’s end as he eyed Sage to indicate that he wasn’t done with this game yet.

They played until it was the last licks. Nick got eight and picked up the spare. It was a split spare. He turned to look at Sage and gave a sort of smug smile. “Beat that Parker.”

Sage looked at him with her polite smile and took a few steps forward. She picked up her ball and walked forward like she was a dainty princess. She cast a backwards glance at Nick and said, “You know we could end this and walk away both winners.”

“I still got a chance. I look forward to relieving you of a buck unless you want to up the stakes. Two?”

“Buck fifty. Still need to pay bills ya know,” Sage replied still holding her ball.

“Deal.”

Sage grinned and turned back towards the lane. She started forward and released the ball. It was a clear strike. She was smiling as she turned to see Nick make a face. It was really close. If she needed to pick up a spare and she missed he would have won. “Dead close, Stokes. That’s the kind of competition I like. It sort of puts things into perspective especially when the hard stuff needs to be thought out. Interesting how things end up working out even when there are things that get to us like a case.”

Nick looked at Sage. He understood what she was saying. He gave a nod to indicate that he did but ended up saying, “Yeah but I still owe ya a buck fifty.”

“Shoe money,” Sage said as she traded her bowling shoes for her regular shoes. “I was eyeing a pair…” She stopped at the look Nick was giving her and started laughing. In the end they both started laughing as they left the bowling alley, each feeling better about what they had for a case.


End file.
